Familiar Faces
by Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet
Summary: Two years after Ichigo vanished without a trace, Rukia brings home an eight-year-old boy claiming she found him. Now the question is, how do they deal with him when he can't remember anything about his previous life? Daricio's Familiar Faces cont. Hiatus
1. Turn of Events

Darn you, Daricio, I blame you for this ENTIRELY!!!!!

Seriously, it's all her fault...and a continuation of the story she put up for "adoption". Please check that out before you read her story "Friendly Faces". Here is her home page: http://www .fanfiction .net /u/295067/ (no spaces)

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"Welcome home, Kuchiki-sama." Rukia looked over at the servant woman who stood just inside the door, waiting to take her outer captain's robe with slippers in hand.

The dark-haired shinigami rubbed the back of her neck as she stepped up onto the wooden floor, leaving her outside sandals neatly below.

"Thank you, Kana-san," she said, handing the other woman the robe. "And please just call me 'Rukia-san'."

"Would you like me to draw a bath, ma'am," Kana asked as Rukia slipped her aching feet into the slippers.

"Maybe later," Rukia responded, eying the eerily silent house suspiciously. "More importantly, where's Ichigo?"

Kana hesitated before answering, which sent warning lights off in Rukia's head almost immediately. It had been nearly two weeks since she had found the 8-year-old boy in the Rukongai, identified him as a memory-less Kurosaki Ichigo, who had been missing for two years, and brought him back to the Kuchiki household, much to Byakuya's apprehension (and amusement, although he would never admit it out loud). So far, nothing too outrageous had happened, but she knew Ichigo's very nature, and that it was only a matter of time before everything hit the proverbial fan somehow.

"What's wrong, Kana?" she asked, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.

"Kuchiki-taichou!" Rukia heard Hanatarou behind her and immediately turned, not knowing if he was referring to her or to Byakuya-nii-sama, who often appeared randomly and quite suddenly, especially in his own household.

The medic strode towards her, looking even more flustered than he normally did. At the sight of him, and no sign of her brother in the vicinity, she felt vaguely relieved, until she realized that Ichigo wasn't with Hanatarou as he should be. This did not help to calm the captain's nerves.

She hurried over to him. "Hanatarou," she nodded in greeting, "where is Ichigo?"

"I-I," He stuttered slightly, but took a deep breath to calm his nerves and continued, gesturing towards the outer wall where Rukia had just come in from. "I took him outside today. Captain Zaraki was..." He sighed, obviously trying to choose the right phrase. "...waiting for us."

Rukia shook her head. Ever since she'd brought Ichigo back, the Eleventh Squad's Captain had practically been stalking the poor kid, scaring him out of his senses half the time. "I'm not surprised," she muttered. "What happened?"

"Well... nothing," Hanatarou said, hesitating pointedly between those two words. "He just sort of... followed us around."

Rukia almost didn't dare to sigh in relief. She'd been expecting Ichigo to snap and give the insane captain what he wanted: an outright fight. True to his nature, even little Ichigo tended to have monstrous power, and didn't hesitate on subconsciously drawing on that and his previous shinigami training if he needed it, although he had a hard time doing so consciously.

"He's under orders to not attack Ichigo. I'm glad he's living up to that," she said with a nod. Actually, it came as a rather pleasant surprise. Kenpachi wasn't exactly known for following the rules. "So, what's wrong?"

Hanatarou looked up at her, obviously frustrated. "I don't know," he said.

Rukia blinked, now thoroughly confused and slightly panicked. "Then where is he?" she asked, glancing at Kana in hopes of some clarification. The servant simply shook her head apologetically and bowed.

Hanatarou went on, earning her attention again. "While we were out talking to people, he kept glancing over his shoulder at the captain and vise-captain and hiding behind me, but nothing happened. We finished a little earlier than I had thought, and headed back here. He seemed fine until we arrived. Then he locked himself in a parlor and hasn't come out."

"Really?" the captain asked, now looking even more perplexed. "And you have no idea why?"

Hanatarou glanced up at her skeptically before returning his eyes to the ground. "I believe he's frightened of Zaraki-taichou."

Rukia nodded and turned to Kana. "Do you have a key to the room?"

"Yes, ma'am, but we felt it better to leave him alone unless we heard something breaking," she said slowly. Hanatarou nodded in agreement.

"I see." Rukia paused in thought for several moments before looking back at Kana. "May I have the key?"

"Of course, ma'am," the woman bowed politely and produced the key from beneath her robes. Rukia smiled. Kana tended to be able to pull anything from somewhere on her person, from brushes and ink stones to bottles of sake. Since nothing ever went missing in inventory, no one really questioned it. Rukia herself had gotten used to it rather quickly, although it still seemed to throw Hanatarou off since he'd been coming to the household to look after Ichigo.

Rukia smiled at her. "Thank you, Kana. Why don't you go draw that bath? One for me and one for Ichigo?"

"Yes, ma'am," the housemaid said, bowing out and disappearing down a hallway.

The captain then turned to her fellow shinigami. "Now, let's go see what's wrong with him."

xXx

"Ichigo?" Rukia said quietly as she entered the sparsely decorated room. Few rooms in the manor had more than a few pieces of furniture. This one was hardly an exception, although it had been fashioned after modern Earthen European style, with chairs, couches and even a tea table.

Ichigo sat curled up in one armchair staring out a nearby window at the sky, far more still than Rukia had seen him since she'd found him. When she entered, he turned and looked at her, blinking his large brown eyes. It hit her for the millionth time how absolutely adorable he looked, dressed in his little casual kimono, hugging the little lion that Kon had given to him in a moment of rare fondness. More than once, she had pondered grabbing some fake rabbit ears just to see how cute she could possibly make this little boy look. She never had lost her fondness for adorable things.

Still, the seriousness in his expression kind of ruined the whole effect this time. Normally, it only made him even cuter, but there was something about him at that moment that stood out to her.

"So, what's wrong?" she frowned, thinking just how weird it felt to say that to him. Back when he'd been an adult (and with Ichigo, she used that term loosely), she would have just kicked some sense into him, but she just couldn't bring herself to do that to an 8-year-old boy.

"Nothing."

Mentally, Rukia took her previous thought back. Feeling her forehead throb slightly, she flash stepped up to him and knocked him over the head. Hanatarou bit his lip and watched in horror from the door. He'd learned better than to question Rukia, but that didn't stop him from looking like he wanted to.

"OW!" Ichigo yelled, rubbing the spot she'd hit. "What was that for?!"

"Lying to me," she said matter-of-factly.

"How'd I lie to you?" he asked.

"Something's wrong, and you're not telling me," she said, sitting down on a nearby couch. "I'm not going to let you do that this time, so tell me what's wrong."

Ichigo muttered something under his breath about 'mean old hags', which had Rukia pinching his cheeks and pulling before he could blink.

"Owowowowow! OWW! I'm sowwy!" he yelped out painfully.

"Good," she muttered and sat back, vaguely wondering why he hadn't dodged that. He could have. She knew him. Maybe he couldn't always count on his previous training, especially since she hadn't given off any killing intent. Was it more like subconscious conditioning? Hit or miss depending on the severity of the situation? She'd talk to Urahara about that later.

Ichigo sat, glaring at her and rubbing his cheek, looking far more like the old Ichigo than he had since he'd come to the house.

"Well?" she asked. "Are you sulking in here because you're afraid of Kenpachi?"

Immediately, the orange-haired boy looked away from her, his scowl deepening. He didn't answer, and that was all the answer she needed.

Feeling her anger subside slightly, she sighed. "Look, Ichigo--"

"Why am I afraid?!" he blurted out suddenly. "Why does he scare me that much?"

Rukia blinked and glanced at Hanatarou, who blinked back and shrugged. "Well," the Fourth Squad Shigami started, edging in shyly, "he is big, and kinda mean, and scary--"

"No, it's something else!" Ichigo shot a pleading glance at him, cutting him off.

Rukia studied the smaller boy. "Well, you did fight him when you came to rescue me," she paused and added dryly, "and several times afterwords; practically on a daily basis."

Ichigo looked back at her skeptically. "Did I win?"

"Usually," she conceded.

"Then why?" he asked.

"Maybe because you don't think you can beat him now?" she ventured.

Again, he shook his head, looking more and more frustrated. "No!" he said. "That's not it either!"

They sat in a thick silence for several minutes before Rukia broke it with a sigh and sat forward. "Ichigo, fear is a natural part of humans and souls. It's how we survive."

"That's not what 'Other me' says," he muttered.

It took Rukia several minutes to fully comprehend those words. "'Other me'?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ichigo looked up at her. "He lives in my head too."

"You mean, Zangetsu?" she asked.

Ichigo shook his head, "No, the other me. He says fear will get us killed."

Rukia suddenly felt her face pale slightly. "Us?" she managed to get out.

Now Ichigo looked adorably perturbed, but Rukia was far too distracted to notice his new, cute expression. "Me, Old Man Zangetsu, and 'Other me'," he said. From Hanatarou's sharp gasp, he saw where Rukia was going and fully understood the implications too.

The captain licked her lips. She'd been afraid that third personality in his mind would eventually surface, and had been rather unsure what kind of control Ichigo would have over said personality....

Gulping softly, Rukia realized she was jumping to conclusions. Maybe there was some other voice in this kid's head. Of course, hat didn't exactly have the best implications either. Still, she figured she'd better make sure. "Does he have a name too? I mean besides 'other me'?"

Ichigo blinked and looked up thoughtfully. "He says he doesn't have a name, so I just call him 'other me'."

Well, that confirmed that, Rukia thought grimly. "What else does he say?" she asked slowly.

Ichigo paused, staring blankly at nothing before he turned back and focused in on Rukia. "He says 'Hi'."

Rukia blinked at the child, wondering exactly how she was supposed to react to this. So Ichigo had met his inner hollow, but their relationship had apparently changed...drastically. The Ichigo she knew never talked to his hollow. Never. It had taken him months after the Winter War ended before he could even openly admit he had the inner hollow, and longer still before he'd talk to anyone about it without dodging questions or avoiding the subject like the plague. When said subject had come up once during a conversation she'd had with Ichigo, he'd said that he hated the fact that he had anything in common with the enemy...that he was just like them. She'd had to beat him over the head for that one too.

When the Soul Society had begrudgingly asked him to substitute as a captain until the end of the 'Final War' with Aizen, he had accepted the restrictions on him using his hollow mask or any power that came along with it almost too quickly.

He seemed to _loathe_ his hollow, so what was he doing talking to that thing like it was nothing? Like they were (dare she think it) _friends_?! And more importantly, why hadn't 'other me' decided to take over? Ichigo had described his Inner Hollow as just that: A pure hollow who just wanted more control and power. He'd been willing to try and devour Ichigo just to get those.

"He says to tell you that 'fear causes mis...um...," he paused for a moment, concentrating on the bigger word, "misun...um...," he paused again, as if listening to someone, and then said the syllables more slowly. "Mis...under...standings," he finally finished, looking rather proud of himself.

Rukia blinked. Well, there went her hot bath. With this new, not completely unexpected but definitely unwanted turn of events, she couldn't get in contact with Urahara soon enough.

"Hey, Ichigo," she smiled as she leaned down and looked him in the eye. "Why don't we keep 'other me' secret for now, okay? You, me, Hanatarou, and Urahara."

"Um, okay," the boy said slowly. "He wants to know why. Me too."

"Because," she chose her words carefully, "we don't want to alarm anyone."

Ichigo blinked at her for several seconds. "He's from my life before. You know him. He says people knowing would scare them. Why?" Of course, he would ask her that. She hesitated, wondering if was it a good idea to tell him. "He won't tell me either," Ichigo pouted when she didn't answer immediately, the familiar scowl returning to his face.

Rukia resisted scratching her head. This really made no sense to her. Hollows lived for fear, often fed off of it like it added flavor to the human souls they consumed, and from what she knew, Ichigo's hollow was no exception.

"People having voices in their heads that aren't Zanpakutous make other people nervous," she said finally.

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "He says 'good one Rukia-chan'," Ichigo muttered. Then his eyes flew wide and he put a hand over his mouth in a way that couldn't help but advertise 'I'm cute!' in big, bold letters. "I mean taichou!" he said, bowing apologetically. "Kuchiki-taichou!"

"Well," Rukia stood up and looked over at the door and Hanatarou, exchanging glances with him. "I think it's time for your bath."

"Huh?" Ichigo whined. "Do I have to?"

"Yes," she said sternly. "Hanatarou," she looked back at the fourth-squad officer. "I'm sorry to impose on you, but would you mind staying a little longer? It seems I have a few more things I need to do."

Hanatarou blinked and nodded hastily before bowing. "Of course, Rukia-san."

"Thank you," Rukia smiled at him, watching the two walk out of the room. As soon as they had gone from view, she practically ran to the communications room and requested an immediate, private, emergency line to the human world.

xXx

"Hmm," Urhahara muttered. Rukia could just picture him rubbing his chin behind that fan of his.

"You sound like this was unexpected," she muttered.

"Well, it is," he said cheerfully. That vein on Rukia's head started to throb again.

"What do you mean, it is?!" she practically shouted. The silence coming from the other end only ticked her off more. "I thought you said you suspected he still had his Visored powers!"

She paused for a few moments, waiting for a response, and was about to start chewing him out when he finally replied. "It seems he doesn't."

That threw Rukia for a loop. "What?"

"Being half hollow and half shinigami doesn't make you a Visored or an Arrancar," he clarified, but that only caused Rukia's confusion to deepen.

"Why not?" she asked, noting the dry tone in her voice. After almost a decade of being a captain, he could still get under her skin almost as well as Ichigo used to be able to.

Urahara paused again, seeming to contemplate before she heard his rather staticy voice. "Becoming a Visored or an Arrancar is about control. Arrancar gain back intelligence to an extent which gives their power a focus that couldn't be achieved any other way. The Visored can control their hollow powers at will, and taught Ichigo to do so as well."

Rukia saw where he was going now and gripped the metal phone-like device tighter, thankful that she'd requested a private room for her communication. "And he doesn't seem to be able to anymore."

She imagined Urahara shook his head in agreement before she heard him again "It seems that he has reverted to point similar to where he was before he met the Visored."

Rukia couldn't help it, she stood up, willing herself not to panic without much success. "Then it's only a matter of time before that..._thing_ tries to take over again?!" Again another pause, but this one felt more skeptical. "Urahara?"

"You said he's freely talking to his hollow, right?"

"Yes," Rukia gulped. "That's not good, right?"

A slight hesitation. "I'm not so sure."

"What do you mean?" she asked, feeling herself growing more and more impatient with the man.

"If that's the case, why hasn't he tried to take over Ichigo's mind already?"

Rukia nodded and sat down, "I did wonder that myself."

"Last time, it took the hollow a little less than month to get strong enough to try and take over," he explained. "He's had almost two years, so we're looking at two options. Either the training set up by the Visored is still there in his mind, but Ichigo himself is ignoring it in favor of interacting freely, or..." he faded off.

Rukia finished for him. "Or the memory block erased the training, but somehow made the hollow weaker." That brought up another question. "Why does he still have that hollow? Normally a hollow gets cleansed before it can even enter the rukongai."

"He wasn't cleansed or lead to the Soul Society," Urahara pointed out. "If he hadn't already known about the soul society, he would have continued to wander around as a normal spirit."

"With no soul burial. I see. So," Rukia put a hand to the bridge of her nose, "what do we do, and how do we stop it?"

"That," Urahara started, "is a very good question!" he finished in a happy tone.

"_Urahara_," she growled threateningly. If she'd been there, he'd have a lump the size of China on his head right now...

"I will get in touch with the Visored," he said, feigning a soothing voice that didn't help at all. "Maybe having them look at him will help."

"Fine," she grumbled. "When do you want me to bring Ichigo there?"

"I should be able to get them here by Tuesday," he responded.

"I'll be there," she said, and slammed the receiver shut. Why did talking to that man always seem to drain her?

xXx

"We're going to the human world?" Ichigo asked as Rukia lead him up to the gate, looking at the little butterfly on his finger in amazement. Rukia's own black butterfly flapped near her ear.

A slight breeze blew by, and the captain took a deep breath. Ever since Ichigo had come to rescue her, she'd made it a habit whenever she left the Soul Society. She'd take a breath of the air there, and picture everything just as it was in case something happened and she never saw it again.

"Yes," she finally answered the boy's question.

"Why?" he turned his brown eyes up to look at her.

She didn't look back, instead keeping her eyes fixed on the gate. "To talk to Urahara-san," she said.

"Oh," he looked down, and then right back up again. "Why?"

Rukia repressed a sigh. Weren't kids supposed to get over the 'why' stage by the age of eight? "Because he has someone he wants you to meet...again."

"Oh," Ichigo looked back at the butterfly, and then immediately back at her yet again. "Who?"

Rukia felt her patience thinning. The last thing she wanted to do was alert the hollow to what they were doing. Wouldn't that go down well, she thought sarcastically. 'We're going to go see the Visored so your 'other me' won't try to take over your mind'.

"You'll just have to see when we get there," the Captain finally said, looking down with a smile she hoped didn't look too fake.

"Oh," he looked down again, and this time, he didn't look back up. "Okay."

The gate opened in front of them, and the dark-haired Shinigami led a miniature Ichigo Kurosaki carrying his sword (on his back for once) through the doorway to Earth. Rukia couldn't help but feel the somewhat awkward silence, although from Ichigo's wide-eyed stare at the passageway across the worlds, she doubted he did.

Again, she wondered if this was the right thing to do. She never had much cared for the Visored. She did feel for their situation, and she had no problem supporting their cause so long as no one got hurt, but something about them really bothered her. At first, she'd thought it was the fact that they were half hollow, half shinigami, but she had no real problem with Ichigo who had the same problem. After months of contemplation, she'd finally come to the conclusion a few years ago that it was their attitude towards both their hollows and the soul society. They'd showed up to save the captains from serious casualties if not complete extinction in the winter war, but they'd only done so to get revenge on Aizen. The fact that they'd saved the Soul Society had just been a side-thought.

Truthfully, she couldn't blame them after their treatment from the Soul Society, but a lot of people they hadn't known at all could have died that day without them caring. Sure, the shinigami weren't perfect, but most of them continued their duties because they thought it was right, or the only thing they could do to change things for the better. The Visored treated them like previous slave masters or piles of waste they couldn't deign to touch. It bothered her that every group seemed to feel that way about the next group. Too many shinigami felt the same way about humans, although they were so interconnected if only by the fact that all shinigami used to live on Earth themselves, or were born from souls who did.

Deep down, they all had the same beginning...even hollows now that she thought about it. Why did everyone have to hate everyone else just because the others lived in different circumstances?

"Rukia-taichou!" a little voice pulled her out of her thoughts, causing her to stop and look back at Ichigo. They'd already passed through the gate to Earth, and had come a considerable distance during the time she'd been lost in her own thoughts. "Why are we going so fast?"

It was then that Rukia realized that she'd been walking so quickly that Ichigo had probably had to use shunpo to keep up with his smaller legs.

Mentally berating herself for becoming so distracted, she smiled down at him. "We don't have to. Sorry, Ichigo."

"It's okay," he said with a shrug, looking around at the street they'd stopped on. Buildings of apartments surrounded them, rising up a few stories here and there. They'd come through a residential area on their way to Urahara's shop. Why the twelfth squad couldn't come up with a more accurate and somewhat closer placement was beyond her.

It was then that she felt the spiritual pressure shift around them.

"What's that?" Ichigo asked, looking around curiously.

"A hollow," Rukia muttered, drawing her sword and pushing Ichigo behind her protectively. They didn't have to wait long before a large figure jumped at them, gaping jaw open. Truthfully, Rukia probably would have barely given the thing any thought if it hadn't been for Ichigo. She knew he could take care of himself, but she felt she had to protect him. He had been—was, she had to remind herself—her friend, after all.

Almost as soon as the monster appeared, Rukia had cut the mask in half, and was watching the spirit dissolve when she realized Ichigo had moved from behind her to stand beside the thing as it vanished.

"Ichigo!" she shouted, sheathing her sword and walking over to him. "What do you think you're doing?"

"What was that?" he asked, completely ignoring her question. Normally, that would have played on her nerves, but the sheer absurdity of the question had her staring at him in shock instead. How could _he_ of all people not know what a hollow was?!

"You...don't know?" she asked in amazement. How could _any_ soul from the Rukongai not know a hollow when they saw one?

He looked over at her in annoyance. "I wouldn't ask if I did."

Well that sounded like the old Ichigo, but still. "That was a hollow," she finally managed to say.

"It was?" he asked as he turned to study the air above him where the hollow had been only moments before. "They're not very scary."

"Huh?" was all she could get out this time. That hollow had had some pretty large spiritual pressure, and a mask that screamed 'I want to kill you', with spikes and thorns sticking out all over it. It had looked pretty creepy, even to her.

He shrugged and walked back towards her. "Everyone said they were really big, and really powerful, and that they ate shinigami. It was big, but not very powerful."

'Compared to you,' Rukia thought with a shake of her head.

"Well, they're right," she said. "That one wasn't very strong, but there are some out there who are."

"Have you ever met one?" he asked, looking up with those eyes that seemed to drink in information.

She opened her mouth to answer, but had to close it and think for a moment. She had met Arrancar, which were technically hollows and very powerful. She'd also met Visored, although she'd never actually seen even Ichigo's hollow form, let alone the others, but wasn't sure if either of those really counted. The only pure hollows she'd ever really met that she could describe as even somewhat powerful had been Gillian. From what she'd been told from Orihime, Ishida (when she could get them to talk about it) and Urahara, Ichigo's inner hollow could actually be the equivalent of a Vasto Lorde if he ever became pure hollow.

"Yes," she finally said, "although they might not seem too powerful to you or me now."

"Oh," he said. "Do they really eat people?"

She didn't like where this was going, but decided to answer anyway. "Yes."

"Why?"

Well, at least it was a good thing they were going to walk to Urahara's a little more slowly, this one might take a while to explain.

"Do you know what a hollow really is?" she asked as she started to walk down the street again.

"No," he answered. She sighed again. Just how much did this kid not know?

"They're souls of humans who have lost their heart," she explained slowly.

"Oh that," Ichigo said nonchalantly as they rounded a corner, "yeah, I knew that part."

Rukia cocked her head. How did he know how a hollow formed without knowing what a hollow was? It didn't make sense. She made another mental note to bring it up at Urahara's.

"Well, what are people's hearts?" she asked.

That one seemed to throw him, as they walked in silence for several seconds while he thought about it, a look of concentration on his face.

Finally, he shrugged. "I dunno."

"They're feelings and memories of people and places they have connections to," she said.

The look of concentration came back, and she realized that he might not have been able to follow that, although she couldn't think why. He usually spoke with a vocabulary far above his outward age.

"People like you and Hanatarou-san?" he asked finally. Rukia couldn't help but feel touched as she nodded. He felt connected to her, and she couldn't help the thought that what he'd said had been very sweet.

"Exactly," she said with a grin. "So, what happens if someone loses their heart?"

"Um..." he started to think on that again, staring at the ground as he contemplated this new question. "They want it back?" His words sounded fairly uncertain, but she was surprised he'd come up with that on his own so quickly. Honestly, was the kid two, eight, or twenty eight? Half the time, she couldn't tell.

She nodded at him, feeling a twinge of pride for some reason. "So who do you think you would go after?"

"You and Hanatarou-sa—oh," he cut himself off as his brain finally made the connection. "And hollows eat people they loved so they can have their hearts again."

"Very good," Rukia grinned. Well, at least he got the concept of the theory. That's all it was, after all; a theory. Shinigami didn't know hollows as well as they knew humans. All that they could really predict was that their predictions would be completely useless for many of the hollows simply because of the diversity in nature and thought. Evil or not, hollows were still sentient beings, which made them very difficult to both study and categorize.

That's when another question from Ichigo caught her off guard. "So, why does everyone think they're evil?"

She'd thought that if he could follow her train of thought before, he'd be able to piece together a hollow's very nature. The fact that he couldn't worried her.

"Well, they kill and eat people," she pointed out with a frown. "Mercilessly and often in large amounts. How is that not evil?"

"But they just want what they lost. Why is that bad?"

"It's how they do it," Rukia said matter-of-factly, and nearly cheered when she saw the dead end that turned into the shop's entrance come into view. "No one has the right to kill and eat other people."

Ichigo looked up at her. "Why?"

The captain froze in her tracks. Why did that one word scare her more than almost anything else she'd heard of since she'd met 15-year-old Ichigo Kurosaki more than ten years before? "Would you want to be killed?"

"No."

"Then do you think you should be able to kill other people?"

He thought about that one for an awfully long moment before he finally looked back up at her. "No."

And that one word gave her more relief than she'd felt in a very long time. "Then why should we treat hollows differently? Besides, our Zanpaktous purify a hollow's spirit and sends them onto the soul society. When that happens, they can get their hearts back again."

"Oh, okay," he said brightly and started walking ahead again. She started to follow him when he paused and turned back around, speaking words that almost stopped her heart. "So, why didn't you do that to me?"

Her face paled as those words sank in. 'He knows.' The thought flashed through her mind as Ichigo stared up at her, looking far too serious for a teenager, let alone an eight-year-old. 'Does the hollow know what we're doing, or does Ichigo know about his inner hollow? Did the hollow tell him to ask that or was that the old Ichigo coming through? What's going on?'

He continued to stare at her, but she found herself completely speechless. "Why?" he repeated, nudging her out of her stupor.

"I...we didn't think we needed to," she said. "We didn't think you'd disappear like that."

"Oh," was all he said. She wanted him to yell at her, to ask her why she couldn't do the one simple task of ridding his spirit of a double personality, of making it whole again so he didn't have to endure the pain and fear he must have felt. His hollow had been a bane to him, and she hadn't even thought about how she might be able to fix that. She could have. She _should_ have.

Most people who died wanted some sort of peace. Why would Ichigo be any different? Why did every excuse they'd given him suddenly sound so empty in her head?

As she watched him turn around and continue to slowly walk, she found herself wanting to run after him, to apologize and beg his forgiveness. He had suffered so much because she hadn't done her duty as a shinigami, both when she first met him, and now. She desperately wanted to do something, but the words running through her head seemed horribly inadequate.

"Ichigo," was all she managed to say, and he didn't even hear it.

xXx

"Urahara-san," Ichigo tugged at the man's robe to get his attention. He blinked and looked down at the eight-year-old. "She's doing it again."

Surely enough, Rukia-taichou's eyes had lost their focus and seemed to be staring at the air in front of her absently.

"Indeed she is," Urahara smiled down at Ichigo before raising his hand in front of the captain's face. "Rukia-san," he yelled and snapped his fingers in front of her eyes for the third time that night. She blinked and looked up at him. "Do you need me to ask Tessai to bring you something?" he asked, looking about as concerned as Urahara could.

"No, no," she smiled over at him and waved her hand. "I'm fine. Just...thinking." Ichigo watched with a worried expression. She'd first acted that way just before the red-haired teenager had met them and brought them into the shop. Urahara had snapped her out of that one too. She's gotten lost in thought at least twice since then, and they'd only talked in the back room for a few minutes. Ichigo didn't catch much of what they'd talked about, and wondered if the shop keeper was always like that, or if it was just around them.

"Very well," he smiled at her and opened the fan in front of his face. Then he turned to Ichigo and bent down. Without removing the fan, he continued to (hopefully) smile at the boy.

"So, Ichigo, are you ready to meet the people we brought you here to see?"

The eight-year-old shrugged. "I guess."

"Excellent!" the store owner immediately straightened up with far more energy than any adult should rightfully have. "Let's go!"

He led them down to the large underground, which made Ichigo curious. Why were they meeting people down here? Maybe there were so many people that just the store couldn't hold them all.

'Che,' Other Me scoffed in his head. 'Did they really think I wouldn't figure it out?'

'Figure what out?' Ichigo asked Other Me. 'Do you know these people?'

'Yeah, I do,' Other Me grumbled. 'You can't trust them, okay? They're gonna tell you a bunch of things. I'll tell you what you can believe and what they got wrong, got that?'

'Okay,' Ichigo mentally blinked at him, but kept that in mind as he stepped off of the ladder.

He started to turn around, and found himself with a view full of green hair.

"AW! It's Chibi-berry-tan!" a high-pitched voice came from somewhere below the...bush? He stepped back, bringing the face that had been too close to him to really focus on before into view. A girl with goggles and short, green hair grinned at him from where she knelt beside him.

Suddenly, Ichigo saw something heading right at him, and had to jump out of the way before it broke the bottom several rungs of the ladder, and crushed the rock directly underneath it, much to Urahara's displeasure. "I don't care if he is little! I'm still gonna kick his bald little butt!" Ichigo looked up with wide eyes to see a girl only a few inches taller than him, with blond hair gathered up into pig-tails on the side of her head turn and glare at him.

"Give it a rest, Hyori," a voice behind him said. Ichigo swung around and looked up at a man with chin-length blond hair and a very creepy, eerily familiar smile just in time to see him get a face-full of sandal from the girl he'd just addressed.

"You give it a rest, baldy! He disappears for two years, makes us think he's dead and all that hard work we did was for nothing, and you want me to give it a rest?!"

"What was that for?!" the man asked, holding his red nose in one hand, and the sandal in the other.

The girl scoffed and folded her arms. "That was for you being an idiot."

"I was not!" the man yelled back.

Meanwhile, Ichigo had slipped over toward where he'd seen Rukia and Urahara standing. He'd almost reached them when he ran into an even taller, more muscular man with short, gray hair.

"Where do you think you're goin' kid?" he asked. Ichigo stepped back. Something about this guy reminded him a little of Kenpachi, and he didn't like it.

'I told you, don't be afraid!' Other Me practically yelled at him.

'Right,' Ichigo nodded, trying to put on a brave face. "I'm going over there," he pointed to Rukia.

"Ichigo," the blond man from before called as he walked up to them, having finished his argument with the Hyori girl or ignoring her completely. "You really don't remember us?"

The child blinked up at him, and then looked around. There were four other people besides the four he'd already run into. A disinterested girl with long, black hair tied back in a braid sat on a rock not too far away, reading a book, while a man with frizzy, dark hair sat beside her, reading over her shoulder. Ichigo vaguely wondered why the man's hair had been cut to look like a star. The largest man he'd ever seen sat on the ground a little ways away from them. He smiled nicely and waved at Ichigo, who returned the gesture. The last person was a man with long, blond hair who leaned nonchalantly against a rock. He didn't seem interested either because he wasn't even looking over at Ichigo.

The orange-haired boy finished his survey of the room and looked back up at the man.

"No," he said with a shake of his head.

"You've gotta be kiddin' me!" Hyori appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the front of Ichigo's shinigami outfit, lifting him off of the ground. "We saved your sorry butt and you can't even remember us?"

Ichigo felt a tiny flare of anger swell inside of him. "I don't remember anything or anyone," he said back, a little louder than he intended to. "Especially mean, stupid, short people!"

"What?" Hyori's voice dropped dangerously. "Are you saying that I'm not good enough to remember?"

"Yeah," Ichigo shot back.

"Why you--"

"Hyori-san," Urahara suddenly appeared beside them and stuck his fan between their faces. "He doesn't remember anything, even his family. That's what we're trying to fix."

The man with short, blond hair scratched the back of his head. "Is that why you wanted us to come, Urahara?" he asked, looking slightly annoyed.

The shop keeper flipped his fan open and turned to the other man. "Of course!"

"You baldy!" Hyori yelled and threw her remaining sandal at him, hitting his head dead on and almost knocking him over.

"Hyori-san, why do you have to do that?" he lamented, holding his head.

"If that's all you needed us for," the girl with black hair walked by, "then we'll be going now, as it obviously didn't help."

"Before you do," Urahara called out to them, the tone in his voice suddenly much more serious. He turned to Ichigo and looked at him squarely. "Would you tell us about 'Other Me'?"

Ichigo pouted. "Rukia-taichou said that was supposed to be a secret!"

"It's okay, Ichigo," the captain called out to him. "I gave him permission."

"Oh," Ichigo grumbled. 'Then why didn't she tell me?'

'Because she didn't want me to know,' Other Me replied, shrugging.

'Why not?'

"Other me?" the short-haired, blond man asked, looking at Ichigo curiously. "Are you tellin' me that this kid didn't get a soul burial? That he's still like us?"

Other Me scoffed again. 'Don't put us in the same category,' he muttered.

Rukia-taichou's mouth thinned out, and she nodded. "We think so."

Every one of the new people stopped what they were doing and looked over at Ichigo, who suddenly felt very self-conscious.

"Alright, who is this 'Other Me' you're talking about?" the man smiled down at Ichigo, which did nothing to soothe the boy's apprehension

"Who are you, first?" Ichigo shot back.

The man straightened up. "Fair enough," his grin widened. "I'm Hirako Shinji. Nice to re-meet you."

"Who are they?" Ichigo pointed over to where most of the people had gathered.

"That's Yadoma Lisa, Mugurume Kensei, Hyori, Aikawa Love, just call him Rose, Kuna Mashiro, and call him Hachi," he said, pointing to each of the others in turn, then he turned back to Ichigo. "So, 'Other Me'?"

"Why should I tell you?" Ichigo asked with a slight pout.

This time, Rukia spoke up soothingly. "Ichigo, they're all like you. They have another voice in their head. That's why we thought they could help."

'You just didn't know what to do 'cause you didn't think!' Other Me practically yelled, causing Ichigo to wince slightly.

"Please," Rukia continued, "tell them."

It was the look on her face that did it, a completely helpless look that he'd always hated...although he felt pretty certain he'd never seen it on Rukia-taichou's face before.

'Fine, tell them,' Other Me said.

Ichigo looked directly at Shinji and nodded. "He lives in my head with Old Man Zangetsu."

"Oh really?" Shinji asked in an obviously fake voice, squatting down so he'd be more even with Ichigo.

"Yeah," the boy nodded as he spoke. "He talks to me a lot and explains things I don't understand sometimes."

The man blinked at that, looking surprised. "Really?" he repeated, this time with a much more sincere voice.

"Uh-huh," Ichigo confirmed. "He's saved my life before, too."

'Whoa,' Other Me protested suddenly, 'That's going a bit too far.'

'Why?' Ichigo asked, even as he watched the man's eyebrows shoot up.

"He did what?" Hyori suddenly butted in.

"Yeah," Ichigo said slowly. "There were men, in the Rukongai who were chasing me, and Other Me helped me beat them." Well, Ichigo wasn't really sure if he had or not. Truthfully, he'd woken up in the middle of what had looked like a battle ground, with people unconscious all around him and a wooden stick in his hands. Other Me had said that it would probably be better if Ichigo didn't remember, and they'd left it at that.

"Has he ever tried to hurt you or take over your mind?" Shinji asked, his voice sounding more and more incredulous.

Ichigo looked appalled. "No. Why would he do that?"

"Because, kid," the guy named Mugurume said from his position only a few feet away, "that's all that voice in your head wants to do."

"How would you know?" Ichigo shot back.

The man scowled at him. "'Cause this 'Other Me' you've become so friendly with, is a hollow."

Kensei Muguruma


	2. All Over Again

Okay, I want to warn you first that there's a rather confusing part at the end, but bare with me, it'll make sense in a few chapters. Promise. Also anything in between the "// \\" marks are inner thoughts. Kind of playing around with what should and shouldn't be an inner thought, so please let me know if it's too distracting or not. Thanks.

* * *

The gray-haired man scowled at him. "'Cause this 'Other Me' you've become so friendly with, is a hollow."

Ichigo blinked up at the man incredulously. "Other me...is a hollow?" he repeated dully.

"Great," Rukia-taichou shook her head from the side. "I knew I should have been the one to tell him."

"What do you mean?" Ichigo asked, blinking out of his stupor. "I have a weird monster-thing inside my head?"

//Hey!\\ Other Me shot out. Ichigo ignored him.

"Weird monster-thing?" Hirako-san asked, then raised an eyebrow in Rukia-taichou's direction.

"Apparently he met his first hollow today," she muttered the explanation.

Again, Ichigo felt himself to be the center of attention. "Wait, you've never seen a hollow before today?" The big man named Hachi (at least Ichigo thought he was named Hachi) asked.

The boy shook his head.

"Well this'll be fun," Lisa-san muttered as she opened her book again and began to read.

"Don't read that in front of Ichigo," Rukia said, her eyes wide in horror at the cover of Lisa-san's book.

The dark-haired girl shook her head. "If he's really 28, then it doesn't matter."

"He can't be a hollow," Ichigo insisted, interrupting the conversation and returning the attention to him.

"Why not?" the Muguruma asked with a pointed look.

"Because he said he's apart of me. I don't wanna eat people, and I still have a heart, so I can't be a hollow, so he can't!" Silence fell over the room as everyone stared at the kid. His logic had been pretty solid for someone who hadn't known about the situation before hand.

Finally, Shinji turned to Rukia-taichou. "How old did you say he was?"

"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "Sometimes I wonder myself."

"I'm eight," Ichigo pouted, folding his arms.

The green-haired girl (Ma—something) suddenly came up to Ichigo. "You're so cute, chibi-berry-tan!"

Ichigo blinked at her, leaning away as she invaded his personal space. "I'm not cute!" he scowled.

"Urahara," Hirako-san spoke up, his eyes never leaving Ichigo, "you can explain it the best, so you set the kid straight."

Urahara-san opened his fan and brought the other hand up to his head. "But I'll use words he won't be able to follow."

Hiyori let out a set of words that made Ichigo's eyes widen, and she sent the sandals (which she'd somehow found again) at the man's head again. "Tell him what you know, baldy!"

"I'll do it," Lisa closed her book and cracked her neck before she walked up to Ichigo. She knelt down and looked him in the face for several seconds. He scowled back at her, refusing to look away. Finally, she stood up. "On second though, I won't."

"Well _someone's _got to explain it to him!" Rukia-taichou stated in exasperation.

"Then why don't you?" Hiyori immediately turned on the captain. "You high-and-mighty Shinigami Captain who knows everything!"

Ichigo felt his fists ball. "Don't talk to Rukia-taichou like that!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, brat?" Hiyori growled, narrowing her gaze onto him.

"Alright," Urahara stepped up, his fan never leaving his face. "I'll explain it." He looked down at Ichigo who gulped. His whole aura had changed almost instantly from a happy-go-lucky shop keeper to a very dangerous man. It had only taken moments.

"So," he started, "Ichigo, do you know how you met Rukia-taichou?"

Ichigo nodded. "I was attacked by a hollow and she saved me, but got hurt and gave hi—er, me her powers. That was illegal, so she got arrested and I had to go rescue her."

"Correct," the shopkeeper said. "But did you also know that they took your shinigami powers away when they came for her?"

Ichigo cocked his head. "But then...how could I go save her?"

At this, Urahara closed his fan with a snap, letting his hand drop to the side. "You chose to train with me. We had to sever your soul chain in order for you to gain those powers."

"Wait," Rukia-taichou cut in suddenly, "you _killed_ him?!" Ichigo felt his face drain of color.

Urahara turned, his goofy grin coming back. "Of course I did!"

"That isn't a joke!" she yelled. "How could you do something so risky?!"

And that quickly, his serious demeanor returned. //Is he bipolar?\\ Other me muttered in his head.

"We did what was necessary," he commented, turning his back on her and facing Ichigo again. "After that," the former captain continued, "we put you at the bottom of a hole that sped up the disintegration of your soul chain. You had to gain your shinigami powers by the end of three days, or you'd turn into a hollow."

Ichigo's eyes widened and he gulped at those words. "But," he started, "I wouldn't want to be a hollow..."

Urahara nodded. "Which is why, when the three days were up and you started your transformation, you resisted. That's how you were able to find your own shinigami powers."

"Oh," Ichigo relaxed slightly. "So I just became a shinigami, right?"

"Mostly," Urahara conceded.

Ichigo cocked his head again. "What does 'mostly' mean?"

Urahara whirled around, advancing on Ichigo. "The opposite of a shinigami is a hollow. The opposite of a hollow is a shinigami. The only way for you to gain those powers was to expose you to the opposite. That would force your natural shinigami powers to the surface, but it would also mean that a part of you would latch onto the evolving hollow powers, and that part of you would become a hollow."

Ichigo shook his head. "Rukia-taichou told me he—I had to beat the hollow in my head, but I don't get it. Shinigami and hollow can't be in one person. That doesn't make sense."

Urahara took a deep breath and looked up. "A Shinigami and a hollow can't be one person, but they can both be a part of a person."

"Huh?" Ichigo scratched his head.

"The psyche, or mind, will split into two parts and form a double personality. Two people sharing the same body. Two people who used to be the same person. One will be a shinigami, and the other will be a hollow. Then, the two minds will try to take over the other and become dominant."

//Whoa,\\ Ichigo's other self said suddenly, causing Ichigo to jump. //That last part, don't believe it.\\

//Wait,\\ Ichigo suddenly felt his legs go weak, //What about everything else? Is it true? Are you a hollow?\\

Other Me laughed. //You really are pathetic sometimes, Ichigo. Yeah, I am.\\

Ichigo collapsed onto his knees as the world around him faded out. //But...I don't want to eat people, and I still have a heart,\\ he reiterated.

//Yeah, you do,\\ Other Me said dryly. //I don't.\\

//Do...you want to eat people?\\

Ichigo could almost feel the shrug. //Sometimes, though I've never actually done it.\\ The eight-year-old suddenly felt sick. A part of him wanted to eat other souls. The very thought turned his stomach.

//Oh get off it,\\ Other Me shot. //I am what I am. Doesn't stop the fact that I've saved your life. You'd be dead without me.\\

//They said you'd try to take over. You said not to believe that. Why won't you? How can I believe you?\\

This time Ichigo felt the anger inside of the other personality rise. //This is exactly why we had issues the first time. You were too scared of me to be of any use!\\

//If you want me to believe you, then answer me!\\

//You really wanna know?\\ the hollow asked. //Fine. I won't try to take over because it's in my nature to gain more power. It's how hollows survive. It's how they _live_. It's also a fact that you and I are more powerful if we work together.\\

Ichigo tried to wrap his head around that one. //Why?\\

The hollow rolled his eyes. //You don't remember, but the times we were able to get stronger were the times you would do anything, even team up with me, to win.\\

For some reason, this seemed to make sense to Ichigo. //Oh.\\

'You'd better pay attention,' the hollow murmured //Outside, I mean.\\

"Ichigo!" Ichigo looked up to see Rukia in front of him, her hands on his shoulders. "Ichigo, answer me!"

"Huh? Rukia-taichou?" he said.

"Oh, thank goodness."

"Well," Shinji muttered, "guess that proves that."

"What?" Ichigo asked, not liking the look on the man's face.

The former shinigami cocked his head at him. "That you need training again."

//No! You...wait,\\ Other Me faded off, contemplating for a moment. //On second thought, yeah. Tell him you'd like that.\\

//Why?\\ Ichigo asked, suspicious in spite of himself.

//Because it will get them off your back,\\ he replied coolly.

//But I don't even know what kind of training it is.\\

//Then why don't you ask him, genius.\\

Ichigo nodded and looked up at Shinji. "What kind of training is it?"

"It's difficult, but it'll help you to control that voice."

"But, he's never hurt me before," Ichigo insisted.

Shinji shook his head. "It's only a matter of time, Ichigo. Do you want to still be able to choose what you do in life?"

"Yeah," the boy muttered.

"Then you have to do this, okay? Trust me."

//Tell him you do,\\ Other Me nudged.

//But that's a lie!\\

The hollow growled. //Goody two-shoes. Fine, just tell him you'll train. That's the truth.\\

//Okay,\\ Ichigo said, focusing back on Shinji. "Okay, I'll train with you."

Shinji smiled, immediately making Ichigo want to take back his words. "Excellent," the older person said. "Let's get started then."

xXx

"A week, he said," Rukia seethed at Urahara. "One week! I can't stay away from the soul society for an entire week! Not on such short notice like this!"

Urahara shrugged from behind his fan. They'd both gone back to the shop where Urahara had taken a seat behind his usual wooden table while Rukia paced back and forth across the small room, her feet tapping a hard rhythm on the floor.

"It seems that is what must happen to help Ichigo," Urahara pointed out.

"Couldn't we do it in a few weeks? I could schedule the time off," she muttered with her chin in her hand.

"Do you want to do that?" Urahara asked, serious for once. Rukia paused and looked over at him. "Now that his hollow knows what we're doing, he'll stop gathering strength and try to take over again. Do you really want to wait those weeks and risk his sanity?"

Rukia sighed in frustration. "I know," she said, "but I can't just take a week off like that! Hinamori-fuku-taichou is a very capable person, but that's not fair for me to do that to her, not to mention it would tear down a lot of the trust I've been able to coax out of her."

The shopkeeper watched the captain with an unreadable expression. "Who has been watching him when you are on duty?" he asked suddenly.

"Hanatarou," she muttered absently and then seemed to realize what she'd just said. "You aren't suggesting that...I don't know if he could handle the Visored. He's not exactly the most sturdy shinigami in our ranks, even if he is a sixth seat."

Urahara shrugged. "Then why did you want him to watch Ichigo to begin with?"

"Because he's honest, hard-working and earnest, not to mention Ichigo trusts him and he could treat any wounds if Ichigo hurt himself and..." again she seemed to realize what she was saying and shot a glare at Urahara. "Fine, I'll send him in my place, but only if he gets free room and board, and you don't take advantage of him."

At this, the man looked utterly horrified. "Would I do such a thing?"

"Your word."

"Very well, then," Urahara raised one of his hands. "I promise I will not try to take advantage of him."

"Good," Rukia stood, and her gaze wandered over to the trap door. "Well, I'll set off, then," she muttered. "I will be back in one week to collect him. They'd' better understand that too."

"I'll inform them," Urahara grinned, fanning the air in goodbye as she slowly left the room. Once she'd vanished, he leaned his head down onto the palm of his hand, elbow now resting on the faux wooden surface of the table. "Now," he said to himself turning to look out of the open doorway at the cold, spring night outside, "with all of this taken care of we can afford to spend a little more time on _that_."

xXx

The world around them began to fade in from the blackness they'd grown so used to. Even this small light made them squint in pain. It continued to steadily grow brighter, fortunately slowly enough for their eyes to adjust. Then, for the first time in what had to be the equivalent of decades and centuries, they felt ground beneath their feet.

Not daring to believe their luck, he clumsily scratched their arm just to make sure he wasn't dreaming again, just as the sounds of Earth bombarded their ears. Distant honks and beeps from cars, the hum of electricity and the movement of the small animals that could thrive in a city metropolis.

"Che," he muttered to himself, then began to mumble, as if moving his lips were difficult. Despite this, his thoughts came through to those he came with loud and clear. //I can't believe we're here.\\

Then he mumbled something else, answering himself in a completely different voice, //Why not? We spent enough time piecing it together again.\\

//You idiot. Time didn't exist. We couldn't have spent any time on it.\\

He stuck out his lip in a pout. //It existed to me,\\ he muttered, his words barely legible, but becoming more so the more he talked.

Then the figure spoke in yet a third, higher pitched voice, his words still running together. //Will you two shut up? You're bugging him and me too. Let's just go find him, 'kay?\\

//So, are we like souls, or humans?\\ the second voice asked. Out loud, it sounded more like "Sssa aaw we wi sows 'r umuns."

//Who cares?\\ the first voice retorted. "Ooo airs."

The second voice from the figure glared ahead of them, mentally directing it at the first. //I don't know about you, but I don't exactly want to go walking around naked now that there are people to see us.\\

//Hey!\\ the third voice broke in cheerfully, //I could almost understand the words you just said. Maybe it won't take us too long before we can actually talk again. So, are we all way back? Can shinigami and souls see us?\\

The first voice shrugged their shoulders. //No clue. So long as we can touch shinigami and they can hear us, I don't really care.\\

//But,\\ the second voice said again, //if he _can_ see us, then how will we get him to trust us if we're walking around in the buff? People didn't used to do that for a reason.\\

//Fine,\\ the first voice conceded with a growl. //We get clothes for us, and then we find him.\\ He started to move their legs, and immediately collapsed, almost falling through the ground but managing to stop themselves half-way.

The second voice broke into a rough laughter, his voice sounding as if it hadn't been used in decades. //You can't even control our body?!\\

//Like you can do better!\\ the first voice shot back.

//Ooo, lemme try!\\ the third voice broke in eagerly.

//Stop it, all of you,\\ a fourth voice calmly broke in, easily speaking the most clearly out loud and leaving no room for discussion in his tone. //The body is difficult to use because it has been so long to our minds, and we have not yet completely materialized here. We must all relearn to use it. We are all representatives, and we all must complete this task.\\

//And that means you get to try it first, doesn't it gramps?\\ the first voice accused with a sneer.

Silence came from the half-buried figure before the fourth voice spoke calmly. //What would you suggest?\\

//That you all get outta my way!\\ the first voice growled, moving their hand experimentally.

//Control freak,\\ the second voice muttered.

//Watch it, human,\\ the first voice threatened. One hand lifted out of the ground carefully.

//So, we're not...\\ the third voice spoke up, obviously trying to come up with the word he wanted. //We're not solid yet?\\

The second voice answered. //That's what he said.\\

//Will we become solid like this?\\ The voices seemed to contemplate this in silence, and their body stayed motionless, still sticking half out of the ground.

//We do become more solid by the second,\\ the fourth voice pointed out.

//Get us out of here!\\ the second voice insisted.

The first voice called the second voice several colorful words, causing the third voice to gasp.

//You don't remember how to use a body, but you remember those?\\ the second voice asked incredulously and with more than a little annoyance.

//Shut up,\\ the first voice rounded on both the third and second. //You've heard worse.\\

//Not since The End!\\ the third protested.

All four voices fell silent for several seconds, as if remembering something unpleasant.

//Our feet were solid,\\ the third voice broke through the uneasy quiet. //Let's try to get back like that.\\

//Shutup, brat!\\ the first voice snapped.

//Hey!\\ the second voice broke in, //don't talk to him like that!\\

The fourth voice sighed. //He would be correct. It would be best to return to that position.\\

//Whatever,\\ the first voice grumbled concentrating on making their hand solid enough to remain on the ground instead of sinking through it, and only partially succeeding.

//Hey, it didn't sink in as much that time,\\ the second voice spoke up.

//Good for it,\\ the first voice said just as it started to slide more.

The third voice spoke out, in a slight panic. //We're sinking again!\\.

Just for one moment more, the fourth voice had control of the mouth again and chose to take the opportunity to mutter something in almost perfect clarity before he retreated to the back of their minds. "We're doomed."


	3. Fight?

"// \\" marks are inner thoughts.

* * *

"New and improved! Super Hiyori Walker Mach 2!" The blond girl unveiled the exercise machine with a flourish Ichigo didn't think she was capable of, but he remained unimpressed. "You just get on here, and we can start your training!" The boy eyed the machine warily. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him, but he still felt a large wariness when it came to that machine.

Finally, he looked up at them again. "No," he said simply.

Hiyori growled and ground her teeth. "What do you mean 'no', you brat?!"

"That's stupid," the boy shrugged.

The girl looked ready to explode. "This is our training. If we tell you to jump, you ask 'how high'. Now get on the thing!"

"No."

Hiyori stomped up to Ichigo, letting out a string of curses the boy was sure he'd never heard before...and was fairly certain he didn't want to know the meaning of. She grabbed the front of his shinigami robe, lifting him off of the floor. "What did you say again?"

"I said 'no'," Ichigo shot back, seemingly unphased. "It means I won't do it. It's stupid, and you already know how strong I am."

Hiyori paused, surprised. "How did you know it was supposed to measure your spiritual strength?"

Ichigo blinked back. "Uh...I didn't know," he said, looking a little confused.

"Anyway," the Visored almost immediately recovered, "Doesn't matter. You're doing it or I'll--"

"Hiyori," Hirako stepped in.

"What do you want, baldy?" she grumbled up at him.

"We just jumped in last time. Who's to say it won't work this time?"

Hiyori grabbed for her sandal. "We skipped this last time because he's a freaking impatient idiot who doesn't get what 'hard work' really is!"

"Hiyori," Love spoke up suddenly, stopping her in mid swing at Shinji's face, "why did we come up with the idea of measuring someone's strength?" The girl looked at the other man for several moments before she lowered her hand to her side, clenching the shoe hard enough to almost bend it in half.

"Alright," she hissed. "But someone else will have to do the endurance training afterwords, 'cause I'm not."

With that, she turned and stalked off.

"I didn't mean to tick her off," Love said, blinking after the girl.

Ichigo looked up at Shinji. "Why did you want to measure my strength again?"

Shinji didn't look down at him, also watching Hiyori leave. "Because it became essential when we had to go through this ourselves, and we weren't sure if your own spiritual pressure has gone down or not."

"Oh," the orange-haired boy shot a glance after Hiyori before turning to look back up at Shinji. "Why?"

The former captain turned around and walked a few feet away. "I'll tell ya later, kid," he said, ruffling his hair as he passed.

"Hey!" Ichigo protested.

After only a few feet, the Visored stopped and turned back towards Ichigo, sticking his hand out so it was right in front of the boy's face. "Alright kid, time for round two."

And the world blacked out.

xXx

"Hey, I know where this is," Ichigo grinned, looking around. He liked the sideways world where everything looked blue. For some reason, he felt calmed here. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, but he did like his 'inner mind', at least that's what old man Zangetsu had called it.

"Yo, Ichigo!" A white streak flashed towards him. Immediately he drew his sword to block it out of instinct, and stopped the other sword from slicing him in half.

Ichigo glanced up to see his monochrome reflection. "What's the deal, Other Me?" he yelled.

The hollow shrugged. "If we don't fight in here, we won't change outside. It'll make them suspicious."

"Oh," Ichigo blinked, then shrugged and threw his white self off of his sword. They stood at opposite ends of the building, staring each other down. Other Me's reasoning seemed solid, and it didn't bother Ichigo to fight, especially if it wasn't serious, but still... "I have a question," he said slowly.

"Ask while we fight," Other Me grinned, charging towards the other boy. Ichigo blocked fairly easily, and responded in turn, trading blow for blow.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a hollow?" Ichigo managed to ask after a few minutes.

His white self shrugged. "Didn't seem like a good idea."

"Why not?"

"Because then you wouldn't listen to me," his other self replied, swinging low.

Ichigo jumped and flipped backwards, landing firmly between two windows not too far back. "Why wouldn't I listen to you?" he asked.

"You really like to ask questions," Other Me rolled his eyes. "Why would you listen to a hollow? You never did before, so you wouldn't have then."

"But I didn't even know what a hollow was," Ichigo pointed out.

"Didn't want you to remember," the hollow glared, swinging his white version of Zangetsu hard.

It took everything Ichigo could muster to block that swing, and again, he jumped back. "Why not?"

"Che," Other Me continued to glare, but didn't come in for another shot. Instead, he started to swing Zangetsu around by his black wrapping, making a whooshing noise that sounded as he talked. "You used to be an idiot, Ichigo. An idiot who lived on fear."

Ichigo stared at his other self for several seconds. "But...everyone else says--"

"Everyone else didn't know you like I did," the white boy interrupted. "It always took the old Ichigo forever in a fight to stop being afraid of the other person, and you ignored the fact that you enjoyed the fight. You always thought that everyone was depending on you. You were an egotistical, arrogant brat who thought he was everything, and the person you feared most, was me!" He released the sword, sending it straight at Ichigo's head. Ichigo put up his own version of Zangetsu, causing it to glance off to the side.

"You hated me, Ichigo."

"Why?" the boy asked, not sure what else he could say.

"Because I scared you."

"Why?"

Other Me smirked. "Because I _am_ you." Ichigo continued to blink, looking like he was trying his best to keep up. "I am everything that he--you--tried to lock away; all his darkest thoughts and feelings. That's why he didn't want to admit he liked fighting--because _I_ did, and he didn't want anything to do with me! He didn't want the slightest common thing between us!"

"But why?" Ichigo asked again.

"I kept wondering that myself," the hollow muttered. "Stupid, 'cause we're the same person. By the way, try bankai."

Ichigo cocked his head. "Huh?"

"It'll help with the hollow transformation outside," a creepy grin stretched across his face.

"I'm becoming a hollow!?" Ichigo asked, looking around fearfully.

"_What did I say about fear?!_" the hollow shouted, launching himself at Ichigo again, who didn't move quite fast enough. The boy felt the other's hand on his face and barely registered it before the other had thrown him back and through--actually _through _the building they'd stood on. And it hurt.

Ichigo cried out as the pain fully registered. Smashing into the building below didn't help either.

"Yes," Other Me walked towards him on the air his version of Zangetsu once again in his hands. "Out side you are turning into a hollow. A true hollow with no real thoughts other than to fight and eat. If I concede, you return to normal. If you concede, I take over. But I don't want that, Ichigo."

The orange-haired boy coughed, ignoring the metalic taste in his mouth. "Then...what do you want?" he asked, finding it a little difficult to speak.

"I told you, I want more power. It's instinctual for hollows to seek out more power, but it's also instinctual for _you_ to seek power.

"And before you ask why," the hollow continued before Ichigo could open his mouth, "I'll tell you. It's because of your stupid protective streak. You like protecting the people around you, right?"

Ichigo shrugged. "I don't know."

"How many times did you take a beating for another kid in the Rukongai?" Other Me asked. Ichigo thought back. He couldn't count all of the times he had stuck his neck out for other children, people he didn't know at all.

"It's something you have in common with the idiot before that I actually don't mind. It's easier for you to take the pain then it is for you to see others in pain. It's how you are, and how you've always been. That's why it ticked me off!" The hollow's fists tightened. "You used to be so afraid of the pain, but you'd try to take all of it by yourself every time! That doesn't work, Ichigo! If you want to protect people, then you can't be afraid of pain! You can't be afraid if you want to fight!"

Ichigo blinked up at the pale boy. "Why did you let me win, if I was that bad?" he asked.

The hollow scoffed. "Because I'm not stupid. What would happen if I took over?" he gestured around him.

"The Visored," Ichigo nodded, suddenly realizing. "They'd want to kill you."

"Precisely," the hollow grinned. "And I like living."

"Is it worth it?" the little boy asked softly.

"Is what worth it?" the hollow looked down at the crater where the other now stood.

Ichigo's mouth tightened into a thin line. "Is it worth living without a heart?"

The white-haired boy blinked for several seconds before he burst into laughter. Ichigo looked up in shock. "You really are better like this, Ichigo. Smarter and braver." His smile suddenly took on a rather sinister twist. "I live to fight, Ichigo. I live to grow stronger, and that's good enough for me."

"I just think...it's sad."

It was then that he noticed the clouds had grown into one large, gray covering, all across the sky.

"Don't you start," the hollow muttered. "I hate the rain almost as much as Zangetsu does."

"Hate the rain?" Ichigo asked, wondering about the sudden change in topic.

"Whenever you get sad or depressed, it rains here. There's no shelter, no covering, nothing to stop us from getting drenched. He hates the rain, and I don't care for it either. The sadder you are, the colder it gets."

Ichigo stared over at the hollow who looked as if he were...

"Are you pouting?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

Other Me turned a glare at him, and then threw Zangetsu again. "Hollows don't pout!" he shouted as the sword struck right where Ichigo had stood only moments before.

"If you don't like it when I'm sad, I guess I'll just have to never be sad again!" Ichigo shouted as the other boy came for him again.

At this, the hollow rolled his eyes. "You're even trying to protect us? You really are a naive idiot, Ichigo."

He came in for a strike again, and that's when Ichigo saw the opening. He went to swing his own sword, but hesitated for just the slightest moment.

'What are you waiting for?!' He suddenly heard Zangetsu's voice in his mind. 'You mustn't be afraid! Swing now, Ichigo!'

That was all he needed to finish the blow, slicing into the hollow and dodging the other's own swing.

"Hmm," the hollow chuckled as he looked down at the large sword. "We never even got to bankai this time." Then he looked up with a wicked grin. "You really are better like this, Ichigo. I concede, but let me out every now and then, will ya?"

xXx

"Rose! Get out of there!" at least three voices called out at once. Immediately, Rose shot for the barrier they'd had Hachi set up.

"That didn't take very long," Shinji muttered, looking over Muguruma's shoulder.

"Twenty two minutes and three seconds," the white-haired man blinked. "Actually, it's a record."

Lisa walked up beside them. "Maybe he was able to remember what he did before."

"He wasn't as hard to fight this time, either," Mashiro pointed out.

"That could be attributed to his mental development," Rose gasped as he too joined the group. They all winced as the explosion from inside the shield drowned out their talking. "He's only has the development of a two year old after all," he finished.

Hachi let the shield drop, and the group walked tentatively forward. Eight-year-old Ichigo sat in the center where he'd collapsed, looking at the mask in his hands.

"So how do you feel this time, Ichigo?" Shinji asked, trying to ignore the redundancy of the statement.

"You look kind of sad," Mashiro pointed out.

At that, Ichigo looked up and grinned. "Nope. I'm never gonna be sad again."

xXx

"You let him win," Zangetsu muttered as he materialized beside the hollow.

"I had to," the white boy shrugged. "Just like last time. This time, though, we'll get stronger and stronger, both of us. No one will be able to stand up to us."

Zangetsu's lips turned up slightly. "I believe that," he said, glancing up at the sky. "You made him sad this time."

"Yeah," the hollow scratched his head. "Kind of regretting it now. Not like I meant to, but he's going to keep trying to be happy for our sakes. The idiot. If he does, it'll be just as bad as last time and he'll get us all impaled on some weaker enemy's sword."

"Because he won't be honest with himself."

"You make it sound cheesy."

Zangetsu shrugged. "And you make it sound sinister."

"I am a hollow."

"Indeed."

xXx

"Hanatarou!" Ichigo grinned, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes when he saw the medic rushing around. "Where's Rukia-taichou?" he paused and looked around, blinking.

Hanatarou paused and faced Ichigo with a smile. "She had to go back for a while, so I came instead. She'll be back in a few days to take us back."

"Oh," Ichigo nodded, looking a little sad. "Why didn't she say goodbye?"

The medic put a hand to the back of his head, scratching absently. "Well, she had to--"

"HEY YOU!" A foot came out of nowhere, knocking Hanatarou across the room where he landed face first in a wall. Hiyori stood at the doorway, her foot still in the air, glaring at the shinigami. "What do you think you're doing, slacking off like that?!"

"Oh, no!" Hanatarou stood up, waving his hands frantically and ignoring the blood dropping down from his nose. "Ichigo-san just asked me a few questions and so I--"

Hiyori walked up to him and yanked his face down towards hers, seething. "I said 'no slacking', got it?"

"Hey!" Ichigo stomped his foot to get her attention. "Hanatarou's nice! Don't be mean to him!"

The blond dropped the shinigami and strode purposefully towards Ichigo, who didn't shrink back. "I wasn't talking to you, so don't you interfere! As for you--" she shot her hand back to point at Hanatarou, who let out a mumbled 'yes' fearfully. "Get back to work! Urahara won't make you do anything, but I'm not just gonna let you sit around doing nothing!"

"Y-yes ma'am!"

"But aren't you doing nothing too?" Ichigo asked.

Hiyori's glare at Ichigo narrowed. "MOVE!" she yelled, glancing over her shoulder at Hanatarou, who squeaked and shot out of the room like a bullet.

"Of course I'm doing something," she said finally, shrugging and standing away from Ichigo. Then, before he could say anything else, she turned and stalked out of the room, yelling to Hanatarou to get her a glass of water.

Ichigo frowned after her, grabbed Zangetsu and headed off for the day's training, dragging the sword behind him absently and making a mental note to talk to Urahara about Hanatarou's situation.

xXx

"There's just nothing else that explains it," Rose said, matter-of-factly. "He has to remember last time, or he wouldn't be able to do this."

"Twelve minutes before he beats Mashiro's record," Muguruma muttered.

Lisa had taken to endurance training with Ichigo this time, while Hiyori refused to even watch. The first day, he'd been able to hold his mask for a full five minutes before it vanished, a marked improvement over his previous training. The second time had gone for almost an hour. Now, two days later, they were approaching 23 hours, and he'd only dropped his mask once, and that had been when Lisa had needed her first break.

"But mine was the first time," Mashiro pouted. "This doesn't count!"

"If you have a problem with it," Love suggested from his seat leaning against a rock, "then why don't you try to break your own record?"

Instantly, Mashiro's face lit up. "That's a great idea, Love, but I need someone to fight with me."

"Why don't you fight with him?" Mugurma muttered, gesturing over towards Ichigo and Lisa.

"Okay!" the green-haired girl grinned and walked over towards the two fighters.

Shinji and Muguruma watched her go with varying looks of amusement, wariness and annoyance.

"There's something off about this," Shinji muttered, watching Ichigo closely as the two fighters stopped to listen to Mashiro.

"There's always something off about anything that's both shinigami and hollow," Muguruma said.

Shinji shook his head. "No, there's something else. I just don't know what, yet."

Muguruma looked up at that. "Don't tell me you're gonna try and get the kid to come with us."

The blond man shook his head. "No, that wouldn't work out well, not with that captain breathing down our necks."

At that, Muguruma laughed. "She scares you."

Shinji shot a glare down at the other man. "How could someone that weak scare me?" Mugurma shrugged. Shinji looked like he wanted to say more, but also shrugged it off with a 'che'.

"No, the Soul Society wants him, and he wants to be there for some reason so I guess we'll just have to let him stay. That doesn't mean I won't keep my eye on him, though. I'm think I'm gonna go talk to Urahara."

"Whatever," Muguruma waved his hand absently as his friend left. "Eight minutes until he breaks the record!" he called out to Ichigo and Mashiro, who had relieved Lisa. He felt a small gratification when his former lieutenant started to fight just a little harder.


	4. Renji

"Hanatarou, are you sure you're okay?" Rukia asked the medic as they led Ichigo back to the Seiretei. The black-haired young man had dark circles under his eyes, and seemed to be having quite a struggle keeping up. "I can't believe that man, after he promised he wouldn't do that to you," she grumbled.

"Please don't be upset at Urahara-san, Rukia-san," Hanatarou hastily said, waving his hands in front of him, fingers spread wide. "He didn't do anything to me, really."

Rukia couldn't help herself and glowered at the passageway ahead of her, imagining several faces there she'd like to take a little frustration out on. "But he let _them_ take advantage of you," she growled. "It's exactly the same."

The medic shook his head again. "Actually, Urahara-san spoke to them about that."

"Only after Ichigo made him," the captain insisted, having read between the lines of each story given to her.

"They're kinda mean," Ichigo commented. Rukia and Hanatarou exchanged glances before looking back at the boy.

"What do you mean?" the captain asked.

Ichigo shrugged. "The other guys with the hollow masks. They're kinda mean. I told them that, and they said they had reasons. When I asked what they were, they told me they'd tell me later."

Rukia scoffed as the gate to the Soul Society opened. "And I'm not happy about that either. There shouldn't _be_ a later." When Rukia had shown up to collect Ichigo and Hanatarou, Urahara and the guy who seemed to be in charge of the Visored (Hirako, if she recalled right) had practically bombarded her. They insisted that Ichigo return once a week for the next several months to continue training. She'd talked them into two days every other week, but she still didn't like the idea of them having such an influence over Ichigo. The last thing the boy needed was for them to re-instal that blatant disregard for authority, among other things...like persuading him to go with them. As far as Rukia was concerned, she'd already lost her friend once, and she was not about to do so again.

Ichigo had protected her for practically all of their relationship. Now she could do the same for him, and maybe start to pay back the debt she'd always felt towards him.

"Welcome back, Kuchiki-taichou," one of the gate guards came up to them, ready to lead them out of the Soul Society's Gate Reception area. They followed along after him with a nod.

"You don't like them very much, do you Rukia-taichou," Ichigo commented, his voice unusually quiet. Rukia blinked, wondering where that comment had come from for a moment before she put everything together from their conversation through the gate.

She smiled softly and shrugged.

"Is it because...um..." Ichigo glanced at the shinigami leading them. The boy had done a good job, not letting anything slip to the wrong person. However, Rukia was pretty sure she knew what he was getting at.

"No, it isn't," she smiled over her shoulder at him. He smiled back, looking relieved and grateful.

"Have a pleasant day, Kuchiki-taichou. You and your company," the guard bowed as he held the door open for them, letting them out and into the Seiretei.

"Thank you," Rukia turned her smiled to him.

After they'd continued for several more paces, and Rukia was sure they were out of hearing range, she stopped abruptly and turned around to face Ichigo.

"Visoreds all have hollow masks. That doesn't bother me. I've been around you too long," she ruffled his hair, grinning at his protests. "And I know a little why they act like that. They have good reasons. What bothers me about them is their disregard for others."

Ichigo's eyebrows furrowed together slightly. "What do you mean?"

Hanatarou stood quietly by, trying not to look too interested, but even his eyes seemed to ask for her to expound. She sighed. She liked to be a terse person, never being one for long tangents and explanations. That's why she drew everything, despite her lack of skill. It just made explaining easier.

"They have an attitude that looks down on Shinigami, souls and humans alike," she said. "Shouldn't we respect people for what they are?"

"Do you respect them?" Ichigo asked after thinking for a moment.

Rukia contemplated that question. Truthfully, she admired what they'd gone through. Putting herself in their place sent shivers up and down her spine. After a few moments, she stood up. "Yes, I do. That doesn't mean I have to like them or what they do."

"You'd like Hachi," the orange haired boy said so matter-of-factly, that Rukia had to stifle a laugh. "He's nice."

"I would, huh?" she allowed herself to grin at him. Again she couldn't help but think how absolutely adorable Ichigo was as a child.

Hanatarou nodded. "He's actually a very nice person," he agreed. "He'd just sit and talk to me when I was working around him, like you used to, Rukia-san, although he usually only did it when I asked him questions."

Rukia opened her mouth to answer, but another voice suddenly cut her off.

"Rukia! You commin' to welcome me back?"

The captain's smile disappeared as she whirled around. "I forgot he came back today," she muttered, just loudly enough for her companions to hear, although she clearly had not addressed either one of them.

Ichigo and Hanatarou turned to face the new voice, the fourth-squad officer glancing uncertainly up at Rukia, who felt like a child who had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"Renji," Rukia forced a grin, remembering that proverbial fan that everything would eventually hit. She hoped this wouldn't be it, and that she could diffuse the confrontation that she could see coming.

xXx

Ichigo watched Rukia-taichou turn towards the new voice. A man with blinding red hair came walking briskly towards them, grinning from ear to ear. He carried his captain's robe over one arm, and several shinigami followed after him, respectfully falling a little behind while their superior greeted his friend.

"Just couldn't wait for me to get back," he grinned mischievously.

"Right," Rukia-taichou nodded. "Welcome back, Renji." The man's smile faded. He eyed his fellow captain as if to say 'that's not normal'.

"Renji?" Ichigo blinked, staring up in wonder at the captain. "You're Renji?"

The red-head blinked, noticing Hanatarou and Ichigo. "Yup! That's me!" he said with a grin.

"And you're a captain?" Ichigo cocked his head inquisitively.

"I sure am, kid!" It was Rukia-taichou's turn to look unimpressed, although Ichigo couldn't begin to figure out why, despite the fact that he felt the same way for some reason..

"But that doesn't make sense..." Ichigo faded off, looking down, his face showing his obvious confusion. "Captains aren't usually jerks...right Rukia-taichou?"

"What did you say?!" Renji deflated immediately, glaring down at the orange-haired kid. Rukia-taichou had a hand in front of her mouth and looked like she was stifling a laugh. The other captain shot a glare in her direction before turning his attention back on Ichigo.

"I don't know what it's like where you come from, brat, but where I'm from captains are supposed to be respected, got that!?"

Rukia-taichou actually snorted. "Oh, like you're one to talk."

Renji immediately turned on her. "I was always respectful to my captain! What's a brat like him doing in the seiretei anyway?"

Ichigo bristled, finding himself glaring at the man and wondering exactly why he felt so angry at that comment. Sure it wasn't nice, but why did he feel this irrational annoyance? The man bent down, looking at Ichigo in the face with a frown.

"New recruit? A little young, in't he? And Rude." It took a moment for him to realize what the man meant. Normally he wore a plain kimono because Rukia-taichou said it fit their story better. Today, however, he wore a shinigami outfit to Earth for the training, although he didn't have his sword visible (Rukia-taichou carried it back, wrapped in several layers of cloth so no one would be able to really tell what it was).

"Hanatarou," Rukia-taichou suddenly addressed the medic.

"Yes, Rukia-san," he straightened immediately.

"I need to talk to Renji for a moment, so would you mind going on ahead and waiting at the fourth squad barracks for me?"

"Hai!" he blinked, shooting a look that read somewhere between regretful and sympathetic at the other captain.

Renji raised an eyebrow questioningly, but nodded for his own squad to go on ahead as well. Then he watched them leave for a moment before turning back to Rukia with an inquisitive although fairly unimpressed expression.

"So," Rukia forced another grin. "How was your long-term assignment?"

"Cut it out, Rukia," he said. "If you needed to talk to me so soon, what's it about? And does it have to do with the twerp here?"

"I'm not a 'twerp'!" Ichigo growled.

Rukia-taichou's smile faded to an annoyed frown. "Yes, it does," she responded coldly. Then she looked down at Ichigo, smile back in place.

"Wait just a moment," she said, rummaging around in her robe. A few seconds later, she pulled out an object neither one of them could see. "Okay, introduce yourself." She nodded to Ichigo, her grin gaining a distinctive malicious feel.

"What's that?" Renji asked, nodding towards her hand, not paying attention to Ichigo's stiff bow until the boy said his name.

"I'm Kurosaki Ichigo," he said through clenched teeth, "Nice to meet you."

Flash! The Rukia-taichou's camera went off, catching the look on Renji's face. "Oh, that's priceless," Rukia-taichou's grin widened, starting to scare Ichigo. He'd never seen an expression like that on her face before.

"What do you mean, Kurosaki Ichigo?" Renji growled. "Is this some sort of really bad joke?"

"It's exactly what he said," Rukia-taichou shrugged, still playing with her camera. "Renji, meet Ichigo, again."

The red-head stared down at the wide-eyed child in astonishment, his previously pompous manner completely discarded. "Like I'll believe that," he said loudly. "If he's Ich-" he cut off as Rukia-taichou slammed her hand over his mouth.

"This is classified," she hissed. "Only captains are to know so please don't announce it to the entire world."

Renji blinked, finally starting to look like he actually believed her. "Why does he look like he's three years old?!"

"I'm eight!" Ichigo corrected, scowling. Renji glanced down and his eyebrows widened in recognition.

"It really does look like him," he muttered.

Rukia sighed. "Come on, you still have to check in. I'll explain on the way."

"Isn't it classified?"

"Then I guess we'll just have to be really quiet," she shot a glare over her shoulder. "Are you coming or not?"

Renji scratched his head, then shook it and started forward. "Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'."

xXx

Renji sat across the table from Ichigo, leaning his chin on his hand as he continued to stare at the boy. After they'd gone to have Renji report in, he'd been informed that he had a three-day leave to recover from his mission before he had to return to active duty. Afterwords, he'd accompanied Rukia-taichou to her squad building with Ichigo, as Hanatarou-san had been assigned to do something on short notice from Unohana-taichou (his captain, Rukia-taichou had explained), who he'd apparently run into.

Without anyone to really take care of Ichigo, Rukia had just given in and led them to the fifth squad base to finish explaining. Then she'd had to excuse herself when Hinamori-fuku-taichou had come looking for her with some paperwork difficulties that required a captain's attention.

Unfortunately, this left Renji and Ichigo in the room alone, sitting in an awkward silence that neither one seemed able to break.

Finally, Renji shook his head and opened his mouth. "She said 'reset'," he muttered. "How could you have been reset?"

"Urahara-san said that--" Ichigo started, but Renji cut him off.

"I know what he said, I heard Rukia explain it. I just...can't believe it."

"Why not?"

Renji raised an eyebrow. "'Cause you always came here before just fine. Why should this be any different? And how did you get here without a soul burial and no memories of how to get here? Not to mention it's almost impossible to just disappear from the path for souls between dimensions without some serious tampering."

"That's what Ukitake-Taichou said," Ichigo muttered.

"An' that's another thing. They've been taking you around, getting you to talk to people? How are they keeping this quiet?"

Ichigo's looked up at Renji and shrugged. "They've been introducing me as Kuchiki Ichigo," he muttered.

At that, Renji's jaw dropped open. "Wait...they _adopted_ you?!"

Ichigo blinked at the other's reaction. "It's not official yet. What's the big deal? It's just a name."

Renji couldn't believe his ears. "Just a name?" asked, incredulously. "Only belonging to one of the most noble and trusted families in the entire Soul Society. _Everyone _knows that name. It can get you just about anywhere."

"Really?" Ichigo asked, his eyes a little wider than usual. Renji rolled his eyes and sat back in his chair lazily, although his hard gaze never softened.

"If you don't really care," he asked, "Then why are you going along with it."

Ichigo shrugged. "Because it's better than the other stories they came up with," he muttered.

That piqued Renji's interest. "Like what?"

The boy couldn't help himself. His cheeks reddened just a bit. "Nothing," he said.

"Okay, now you gotta tell me," the red head leaned forward expectantly.

Ichigo opened his mouth to decline again when the door opened. "What are you two talking about?" Rukia-taichou asked, re-entering the room, much to the current occupant's reliefs.

"'Bout how you're having him adopted into your clan," Renji said with an expression Ichigo couldn't read.

Rukia-taishou's eyebrow twitched in irritation. "Well what would you have us say? He's Ichigo's illegitimate son?" Ichigo felt his cheeks darken just a little more and willed himself to not think about it while Rukia went on. "Believable, but highly embarrassing to him now, not to mention we already have a billion and a half rumors spread around about Kurosaki-taichou already. He needs to be around here so he can meet people he used to work with on a regular basis and start regaining his memories, so this was the most logical option."

"Couldn't you just put him into the academy?" Renji asked.

The woman shook her head. "No, too risky that something would slip, especially if his memories suddenly did come back or if..." she paused, glancing over at Ichigo, who tried not to flinch. He knew her thoughts. Just in case the Other Ichigo had decided to do something.

//Which I wouldn't do,\\ Other Me muttered.

//I know,\\ Ichigo replied. Then he did a mental double take. //Wait, you're talking to me again?\\

//Why wouldn't I?\\ the hollow asked, irritation lacing his voice.

Ichigo looked at his feet. //Well, you haven't talked to me all week. Not even when I said I was sorry for hurting you.\\

He could feel the hollow roll his eyes. //I never want to hear you being ashamed you won a fight ever again!\\ he said in such a threatening voice, Ichigo literally jumped. This jogged him out of his inner discussion enough to realize the other two were staring at him.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Rukia-taichou said slowly before turning back to Renji. "Anyways," she continued. "We thought about trying to find another family that could adopt him, but most of the captains weren't comfortable with the idea of leaving him with members he didn't know (myself included), and I was _not_ about to leave him with the Shiba's."

Renji conceded with a nod.

"I'm right here, you know," Ichigo mumbled, annoyed that they seemed to be ignoring him and talking about him simultaneously. Maybe he really should pay more attention.

The red-haired captain did a double take at Ichigo. "You know, he really does look just like that idiot when he scowls like that."

"I'm not an idiot!" Ichigo shot back.

"Sounds just like him sometimes too," Renji said with a grin.

Ichigo's scowl deepened. "You really are a jerk."

Renji's face started to match his hair. "What was that, you brat?!" he asked threateningly, standing up. Then a twisted grin crossed his face. "Why don't we let a fight decide?"

"What?" Rukia asked.

"Fine by me," Ichigo retorted.

Renji stood up straighter. "Small or not, I'm not goin' easy on a brat like you."

"Why you..." the boy started but was cut off.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Rukia-taichou cut in, glaring at Renji before turning to give Ichigo the exact same face. "You both act like you're toddlers!"

"He is one," Renji muttered.

"What did you say?!" Ichigo shot.

"I said ENOUGH!" Rukia-taichou yelled. When it was obvious neither one would speak up, she turned to Renji. "I'm beginning to agree with his opinion of you, Renji," he blinked down at her, looking a little surprised. "You're a jerk! Ichigo or not, he's still eight years old," she continued. "You call yourself a captain while fighting with a child?"

Renji bent down getting into Rukia-taichou's face, "This is different and you know it!"

"No it isn't!" Rukia-taichou shot back, matching his tone. "Now act like a captain! And as for you..." she rounded on Ichigo.

"He started it!" the boy protested.

"Then finish it!" she growled.

"I was going to," Ichigo pouted, looking upset that he wouldn't get his fight.

Rukia-taichou's glare narrowed even further. "How suspicious do you think it is to fight with a captain like that? It's _begging_ for people to start rumors about how you're Ichigo's son, or Ichigo himself! Until the Sou-taichou says, we cannot let that happen. I know you two don't get along all the time," she brought a hand up to massage the bridge of her nose while she talked, "and I know you had some sort of weird friendship thing going because of that--"

"W-what?" Renji cut in, sputtering slightly.

"We did?" Ichigo asked, looking surprised himself.

"But," Rukia-taichou continued with a pointed look that warned them very clearly to not interrupt, "we can't have you both broadcasting the fact that Kurosaki Ichigo is still alive!"

A gasp from behind them and clunk as something hit the floor had them all turning around to see Hinamori-fuku-taichou standing, shocked, in the doorway with a clip board and several papers at her feet.

The fifth squad captain's face got even more red. "See what I mean?!" she shouted to the two of them before turning and walking over to her lieutenant, who had begun to gather up papers and stutter an apology.

"I'm so sorry! I just needed your signature on some of these forms, and you said I could come in, and I didn't mean to--"

"It's all right," Rukia sighed and smiled at her lieutenant as she handed back the handful of papers she'd collected. "Now that you've heard it though, you might as well get the whole story. Come in."

xXx

"How coul' we end up in America?" the second voice asked for what seemed like the billionth time.

"How shoul' I know?" the first voice growled. "Why don' you just shuddup 'bout it?"

"Box," the third voice pointed out, causing the second voice (who currently had control of the body) to pause before stepping over the soggy object that blocked their path carefully. It had taken them days to realize how far off they'd been from where they wanted to be, mostly because it seemed they had a spirit body instead of a physical body, so humans couldn't see them, which annoyed and protected them at the same time. Protected because people couldn't see them running around naked (at least not until they'd met a soul their second day), annoyed because it wasn't exactly easy to find clothes for a soul on Earth. The second soul they'd met had given them his jacket when they asked, probably just because they'd freaked him out enough that he just wanted them to leave.

They didn't really get the information they'd been looking for until they'd met the equivalent of this land's shinigami, a Native American woman who had apparently thought they were some sort of warped hollow and tried to send them to the next life with pipes and a drum (which they _still_ didn't get). When they'd just stood there, watching her, she'd finally broken down and asked what was up with them.

That's when they'd found out that their body wasn't exactly what they'd been expecting. All she seemed to be able to see was a dark, shadow-like being in the general shape of a human. This was news to them. Whenever they looked at their hands or feet, they saw a perfectly normal, human-like body standing there.

After that, they told her they were looking for shinigami. She asked what the heck they were doing in Chicago. They hadn't exactly had an answer to that.

Finally, she'd told them that there were a few shinigami who came to America on long-term assignments, usually observation missions that could last for months or years on end that she could get in contact with. Then she talked about a few ex-shinigami who had come to America to 'live', so if they really wanted to find one she could probably point them in the right direction. That had been south. Then she'd left them with a long, brown tunic, telling them to be careful of hollows and that had been that.

"We need da learn shunpo," the second voice muttered as they stumbled through yet another alleyway. The third voice nodded in agreement, not bothering to point out the progress they'd been able to make in their speech patterns.

"Does this city ever end?" the first voice growled in frustration.

"I's smaller than Tokyo," the third voice pointed out.

"Well," the second voice caused them to look up, "i's shorter, in any case."

The first voice cut in, annoyed. "How ma'y times have we been to Tokyo? Le' alone tried to _walk_ ou' of it?"

"He 'as a poin', for once," the second voice grumbled.

"So," a new voice caused them to pause for a moment, "you're the 'weird phenomenon' the Guardian Spirits were talking about."

"I know tha' voice," the second voice said and whirled them around, almost throwing them off balance. A woman with very ample assets stood before them in a shinigami outfit and a pink sash around her shoulders. Her long, strawberry blond hair fell around her face in soft waves, accentuating her features.

"Ma'sumoto Rang'ku," the three voices stated at the same time.

The woman raised an eyebrow at them. "Do I know you?"

If they'd been four separate people, they would have exchanged glances. "No' anymore," one of them muttered, causing her to raise an eyebrow. "If you ever did," another one agreed.

"I see," she said. "Well, you obviously know me. So, my turn: who are you, and what exactly do you want?"

"To get t' Soul Socie'y," the third voice answered immediately. Their face contorted in a scowl, apparently directed at him because moments later they relaxed slightly to a more confused face. "What?" the third asked.

"You don' have t' tell everyone," the first two voices muttered.

Matsumoto shook her head, bafflement plain on her pretty face. "Why do you want to get there? And who...or what, exactly are you? What do you want?"

"Demandin', in't she?" the first voice scoffed.

"We are the Representatives," the fourth spoke up for the first time, his voice deep and calm, and by far the most understandable. "We bring a message and a warning."

"Representatives? Message? We?"

"I dun think she's able ta answer with anythin' bu' a question," the first voice rolled their eyes. "This is borin'."

The fourth voice ignored him, answering, "We represent the differen' states of life in this exis'ence. Human, soul, and hollow."

She scratched her head, now looking wary. "Three of you in one body? Are you a Visored? Or an Arrancar?"

"That would not be accurate," the fourth voice said calmly. "And we are four."

"Then, what does the fourth voice represent?"

"I cannot say."

"Right," the shinigami blinked, shaking her head. "And you want to get to the Soul Society to deliver a message? Why?"

"Seriously, only ques'ions!" the first voice said, annoyance lacing his harsh tone.

She shrugged. "Isn't it only fair I know what I'm doing before I act?"

"I didn' think you though' before you acted," the second voice said, sounding a little stunned.

"Soun' familiar?" the first voice muttered.

"Hey!" the second voice shot.

Rangiku glared at them. Her gaze clearly stated that she was about three seconds away from releasing her Zanpaktou. "Why the Soul Society?" she snapped. "Why Japan? Why not here in America, or Europe or anywhere?"

"Ooo, she's mad," the first voice sniggered.

The fourth voice came back calmly, again ignoring the other voices. "We mus' enter the Soul Society because he is there."

"Who?" she insisted.

"Kurosaki Ichigo."

She paused, blinking at them for several moments as a silence settled over both figures, vaguely wondering why they could say his name so well when everything else they said tended to slur together. Then she sighed, scratching her head. "I don't know if you've heard," she said, "but he's missing in action, presumed dead."

"He lives," the fourth voice insisted.

"He's dead a' the momen'," the first voice growled. "How coul' he be 'live?"

"Fine, he 'xists as a spirit," the second voice said, picking up on the first's annoyance.

"How do you know this?" Rangiku asked, now more baffled than ever.

"Why shoul' we answer you?" the first voice shot back.

The third voice broke in. "You jus' wan'ed to answer her with a ques'ion."

"Shuddup."

"How do you know this?" Rangiku repeated loudly.

The representatives fell silent for several seconds. "We canno' say," the fourth's voice said again.

Matsumoto put a hand to the bridge of her nose. "Fine. If you want to get back to the Soul Society, then you're going to have to explain it to him."

"T' who?" the third voice asked.

"T' _whom_?" the fourth voice corrected.

"Wha'ever," the first three said at the same time.

The shinigami only smiled mysteriously. If you know me, you'll know him," she said cryptically before starting off. "Follow me."


	5. Squad Twelve

It really happened too quickly for Hanatarou to do anything. He was taking Ichigo around the Seiretei like he had before their week of training on Earth (he'd actually been planning on visiting the sixth squad since Renji-taichou had returned, and he had known adult Ichigo pretty well), when a figure quite literally flash-stepped in front of them.

"...And then Ichigo stepped up to the Captain, who wasn't the captain at the time--" he cut off the story he'd been telling Ichigo of his former self when he noticed the road block. Ichigo had already stopped a few feet back, looking up at the figure wearing a captain's robe, and an extremely lopsided hat to cover his black-and-white painted face.

"So," the figure leaned down casually, his voice oozing with fake sincerity and real interest, "this is Kurosaki Ichigo."

Hanatarou felt his stomach clench like it always did whenever he saw this man. "Kurotsuchi-taichou," he nodded politely. "We're not supposed to discuss that in the open like this and I was just taking Ichigo to see--"

"Well," the oily captain waved his hand, "you can reschedule that. I've not even gotten a chance to introduce myself. I'd very much like for him to come and see my squad's building today."

The medic felt his face begin to sweat. "I don't think--"

"My name is Kurotsuchi Mayuri," the figure didn't so much as incline his head in politeness. Instead, he ignored Hanatarou almost completely, and continued to shove his too-big grin into Ichigo's face. "Captain of the twelvth squad," he continued. "I'm surprised that since you're trying to regain your memories that you haven't come and visited me yet, so I decided to come and find you myself."

"Kurotsuchi-taichou--" Hanatarou started, now beginning to panic, but this time it was Ichigo that cut him off.

"You have a stupid hat."

Hanatarou blinked in surprise and looked down at his young charge. Kurotsuchi simply raised an eyebrow and stood up. "Do you think so?" he asked. His question almost sounded genuine.

"You look funny too."

The captain shrugged. "The price of my research," he said, and then cocked his head. "You're being very rude."

Ichigo didn't say anything, instead continuing to look up at the captain with a determined scowl.

"Um, I think it's time that I take Ichigo--"

"You aren't looking too well, fourth squad sixth seat Yamada Hanatarou," Kurotsuchi turned his head slowly and for the first time, looked hard at the medic who couldn't help but take a step back. "You should take the rest of the day off. I will inform Unohana-taichou myself."

Hanatarou shook his head and stepped forward. "I feel fine, sir. Thank you but," he reached out to grab Ichigo's shoulder, but the captain caught it in his wrist.

"I insist."

Suddenly, Hanatarou began to sway, the world around him growing fuzzy. "But...I have to take care...of Ichigo..." he fell to his knees, putting a hand to his head.

"Hanatarou!" Ichigo called out, and went to step towards him, but found Kurotsuchi's hand in the way.

"Don't touch him if he's sick. We wouldn't want you to catch it too," his sinister smile never left his face. Then he turned his head upwards. "Nemu! You wreched girl! Where are you?!" the captain called out. He hadn't even finished his sentence when a girl in a short shinigami kimono-like outfit appeared, kneeling on the ground behind him. "Come faster when you're called!" Kurotsuchi spat at her.

"My sincerest apologies," she muttered, not raising her head.

He waved it off with his hand, still looking annoyed. "Take Yamada-san to his barracks. If you are questioned about his ward," at this the captain turned his tooth-filled grin back on Ichigo, whose scowl deepened, "You may tell them I escorted him back to the Kuchiki residence."

The girl nodded. "As you wish, Mayuri-sama." Then she vanished, appeared by Hanatarou's side, dragged one arm over her shoulder, and disappeared again.

Ichigo ground his teeth. "You did that to him."

The captain blinked innocently. "Why would I do such a thing to a fellow shinigami?"

"Why would you treat your daughter like trash?" Ichigo shot back.

Kurotsuchi stared at him for a moment, and cocked his head again. "Who told you she was my daughter?"

Ichigo blinked, his eyes returning to the place where Nemu and Hanatarou had been standing only moments before. "No one," he said finally. "I just knew."

Kurotsuchi's eyes widened. "Fascinating! Come, I must show you my barracks."

"But--" Ichigo started.

"As a captain, I cannot allow you to go wandering around the Seiretei alone," Kurotsuchi insisted, his eyes sparkling maliciously. "You wouldn't want to violate the Sou-taishou's orders and make problems for Rukia-taichou."

Ichigo's face returned to the scowl, but he didn't say anything.

"Excellent," the captain's oily voice held a note of triumph. "This way," he said as he nudged Ichigo down the street.

//Not good,\\ his other self commented inside his head. Zangetsu hummed in agreement

xXx

"No..." Hanatarou said weakly, "I have to...Ichigo...." He continued to mutter, feeling as if he were trying to think through a heavy fog. He vaguely felt the slight person who had his arm around her shoulders, and saw the Seiretei zoom by him as if he dreamed.

"Mayuri-sama will take care of Ichigo-san," a soft voice soothed in his ear.

He shook it off, knowing something had gone wrong, but unable to control his mind or thoughts enough to figure it out. "No..." he murmured again. His limbs felt like someone had shackled them to balls of lead, and he found it difficult for his eyes to remain even slightly open despite the uncomfortable swelling and itching around his wrists. He knew these effects. It was a common poison found in the Soul Society, even in the Seiretei. A fungus of sorts, one of the few that could actually cause souls serious harm if not treated correctly, although he didn't remember coming in contact with it... He vaguely wondered why those thoughts of medicine remained so clear while anything else seemed to just slip away from him.

"Kurotsuchi-fuku-taichou," another voice came rushing towards them. It took Hanatarou a moment to realize they'd stopped. He knew that voice.

Still unable to do much of anything, Hanatarou listened as the twelfth-squad vice-captain explained something to his own vice-captain. Then he felt himself trade hands.

"Hanatarou?" his vice-captains voice said softly, barely breaking through the fog. "You're alright. The Captain has been called away to other business, but we can handle this. You should be well by tonight."

"No," he said again, trying to force his mind to think. "Rukia-san," he looked up, willing his eyelids to stay open for just a little longer. "Now," he forced his hand up to grab his fuku-taichou's robe. "Tell her...Kuro...tsuchi...Tai...chou," the white fog began to turn black. "Send...please." With that, he went limp, vaguely hearing her call out his name before he passed beyond the ability to hear anything.

xXx

//You've got to get away, Ichigo,\\ the high-pitched, distorted voice in his head insisted for the third time as they continued to be pushed in the direction of the twelfth squad.

//I know, Other Me,\\ Ichigo thought back. //But I can't get Rukia-taichou in trouble!\\

The hollow threw up his hands in exasperation. //He just told you that to get you to behave and go along!\\

//Is he really that bad?\\ Ichigo asked.

Mentally, his hollow just blinked at him incredulously. //You idiot. Even _I _think he's bad news!\\

//He is right, Ichigo,\\ Zangetsu said. //If you do not discover a way to escape, this will undoubtedly be very painful at best.\\

//But he's a captain,\\ Ichigo insisted. //He can't kill me, and what can he do to me before everyone gets worried and comes looking for me?\\

He did have a point, but the hollow refused to budge. //He may not be able to kill you, but that doesn't mean he won't cause you serious pain or dismemberment! Probably other long lasting effects too! And two bits it'll either have to do with your memory, or me!\\

//But...he doesn't even know about you,\\ Ichigo blinked up at the captain, who seemed to be lost in his own thoughts, rather disgusting or perverted from the expression on his face.

//He'll have figured it out,\\ the hollow insisted.

"Here we are," Kurotsuchi said aloud, pointing to a building. "Let's see if we can help you with your memory."

"Ow!" Ichigo yelped, feeling a sharp pain in his arm. He looked over just in time to see the captain's hand disappear beneath his robe, something in his hand. "What did you do...to...me..." the carrot-top suddenly felt himself go limp. He remained fully conscious, but his body just wouldn't respond.

//I told you!\\ his other self growled.

Kurotsuchi chuckled cruelly as he lifted Ichigo's limp body over his shoulder. "Hasn't anyone told you not to accompany strangers?" he asked as he stepped inside the building and closed the door behind them.

xXx

Foruth squad vice-captain Kotetsu Isane looked down at the sleeping Hanatarou worriedly. Something really bothered her about the whole situation surrounding him at the moment. Out of all of the squads, the fourth's members knew how to find and avoid anything potentially medically dangerous. This included everything from allergies to common toxic plants and fungai. Hanatarou had exceeded in that area as well, almost always ahead of other fourth squad members when it came to identifying and avoiding/dispatching the problem. The chances that he would have come across the fungai in question and not know it were slim. So, why was he lying in the infirmary like this right now?

As far as she knew, he'd been looking after Rukia-taichou's newly adopted brother when the captain and vise-captain of the twelfth squad had stumbled across them. Kurotsuchi-fuku-taichou had mentioned that they would escort the boy home, but Hanatarou's insistence on contacting the fifth squad captain bothered her as well. The sixth seat holder wasn't exactly the most aggressive person, even when compared with the other fourth squad members. The few times he did stand for something though, tended to be something that meant a great deal to him. He wouldn't have insisted like that if it wasn't important.

With a sigh, she walked back to the office the top five seat holders below captain shared and prepared to send a Hell-butterfly with a message to the Kuchiki-taichou, wondering what could be so important to the medic if the boy were being taken care of. Really, he should think more of taking care of himself sometimes.

xXx

"Are you wondering," Kurotsuchi said with a disturbingly gleeful tone as he calmly walked around the room, checking instruments and gathering sharp tools, "why you are here?" Ichigo would have deepened his scowl if he'd been able to move his face, but as he couldn't, he only continued to stare straight ahead blankly. Of course he wasn't wondering why. There were and always had been any number of reasons this sick freak would want to run experiments on Ichigo.

//You are beginning to recall?\\ Zangetsu muttered inside his head. The hollow didn't say anything.

//I...don't really know,\\ Ichgio thought back to him.

"Do you know," the twelfth squad captain continued, interrupting Ichigo's silent conversation, "how difficult it is for many souls to realize what they've forgotten when they first arrive in the Soul Society? How much could we do if we could glimpse our former lives? Even for captains. Those of us not born in the soul society all started the same way, you see." He finished gathering his tools, placing them neatly on a table beside them. Ichigo couldn't see them very well because he couldn't turn his head, but he doubted that any of them would feel pleasant.

"What is forgotten," the man went on, "seems to have a direct relation with the amount of information they have gathered in their previous life. We have had no serious way to study this phenomenon...or we didn't, until you arrived." He now stood over Ichigo, that insane grin on his face, like a hyaena sizing up some helpless pray. He placed several different, cold suction cups at various places around Ichigo's head and in his hair. "This experiment will have the added benefit of allowing my study of Visoreds to progress further.

"So, I will be taking a look inside that head of yours, if you don't mind." He reached over to a monitor barely in Ichigo's range of sight and began to flip and turn switches. "Unfortunately," he said with no regret in his voice whatsoever, "giving you pain medication will hinder the process and give inaccurate readings. Please do try not to scream, oh wait, you can't. I forgot."

In his mind, Ichigo began to panic slightly. //What do we do?\\ he asked the other two hastily. //There should be something!\\

//How about not getting into the mess in the first place?\\ the hollow growled.

//But we don't even know what he's gonna do! And I know it's gonna hurt!\\

//_Idiot!_\\ his other self screamed. //What did I tell you about fear?!\\

//But,\\ Ichigo would have blinked if he could have, and mentally backed away from the hollow, //I'm not trying to save anyone.\\

//How does that make a difference?!\\

//But I don't like pain!\\

//Instead of panicking, why not think of a way to get us out of this, genius?!\\

"There," Kurotsuchi said and turned his eye expectantly over to Ichigo.

For a moment, he didn't feel anything, and then he felt the suction cups that had been placed on his head before pierce his skin sharply. If Ichigo could have cried out, he would have. He desperately wanted to. He felt a sudden jolt wiggle the wires, and then the real pain started.

xXx

_Flash_

"_Pull the arm back here, and push and that's how you incapacitate a person!" Ichigo heard the voice behind him, realizing how uncomfortable he felt with his arms held down in back and his face pressed into the ground. _

"_Ichi-nii! Hurt! Bad Daddy!" A light-haired girl who couldn't have been more than two stood in front of him, shaking her finger at whoever was holding him down. She seemed so familiar, but he couldn't place a name...so why did he...?_

_Flash_

"_You're such a crybaby!" a girl with short, dark, messy hair stood over him, wearing a white ki and a protective helmet. Ichigo felt his eyes well up again. He'd been crying, and didn't see a reason to stop._

"_Ichigo!" A voice called out to him, and he literally felt his eyes dry, glancing around with a smile, looking for..._

_Flash_

_He was swinging his sword down at Rukia-taichou who looked back with a fierce determination in her eyes. "She'll beat you this time, Ichigo!" A voice called from the side. Ichigo smiled. She had yet to beat him in a sparring match..._

_Flash_

He didn't just want to scream, he wanted to die, and it couldn't be soon enough. His nerves didn't feel like they were on fire, they felt like they'd been dunked in acid, left to dry in the sun and _then_ set on fire. Inside his mind, he collapsed in on himself, screaming as loudly as he could. He couldn't hear Zangetsu or his other self, and at the moment, he didn't care. The glimpses of scenes continued to bombard him, each as alien to him as the last.

_Flash_

"_...heard about the funeral, Ichigo. I'm sorry." He didn't know where he was, didn't recognize the bleak room or the person in front of him and didn't care. His heart...he just felt so empty. Something was missing. Something important..._

_Flash_

"_...promote you to temporary service as captain of the ninth squad of the Thirteen Court Squads until such time as you are dismissed or become unable to fulfill your duties." An eruption of applause around him caused him to stand up a little straighter. He always hated long, boring ceremonies, and this was no exception, but still..._

_Flash_

"_...is Orihime. You'd better be nice to her, Ichigo." Once again the dark-haired girl was back, pointing to a girl with short, light brown hair bowing beside her. He couldn't see her face. _

_Flash_

"_There's no one there, sweetie," a soft voice calmed him down as he clung to her shirt, shaking and crying. "I know it's scary. I'm here. Shhhhh..." _

_Flash_

"_You're lucky I came by," he said to the large figure lying on the grass. He felt a little sore, like he'd just thrown more than a few kicks or punches. He heard something from the figure, but couldn't make it out._

_Flash_

The white-hot, searing pain continued to engulf his body, and that's when he felt his muscles clench. It didn't register in his mind that his mouth had opened in a silent scream, as his voice would not respond, giving him no respite from his agony.

_Flash_

"_It's a pleasure to serve under you, captain," said the calm voice of a young man as he bowed to Ichigo._

"_Don't," the orange-haired man shook his head. _

"_Captain?"_

_Ichigo sighed. "I'm only temporary, and we both know this is only for stupid politics."_

_The other man cocked his head. "Never the less, you are now my captain, and I will serve to the best of my abilities."_

_Ichigo eyed him for a moment. "Yeah, I will to, Hisagi-san."_

_Flash_

_"Do we fight to get stronger, or do we get stronger to fight? I don't know about any of that. All I know is that people like us were born like this! Born to continue to seek battle!" The large man advanced on him, his hair sticking out from the back of his head. Zaraki Kenpachi. Something about his words sounded familiar..._

_Flash_

_He watched as his body moved on it's own, towards the dark, bat-like figure. All he wanted to do was tear that thing apart. He'd hurt her, and Ichigo would protect her. He briefly caught a glimpse of his friends' horrified faces, and didn't care. _

_Flash_

_The boy with dark hair and glasses stood before him, a giant blue bow in his hand. 'Wait,' Ichigo thought, 'did he just challenge me?'_

_Flash_

He didn't realize his body had moved until it did. He grabbed the wires with his still fumbling hands and yanked as hard as he could. Only about half of them came out, and it didn't do a lot to lessen the pain. His hand moved on its own again, reaching for the others.

"The pulse must be stimulating the brain and nervous system to a point where it's overloading the drug. Oh, no, we can't have that, now can we?" the oily voice barely reached him.

//Let me, Ichigo!\\

Ichigo didn't really register those words, nor did he really care to. His mind still continued to focus on the pain overtaking his senses.

//Just stop the pain!\\ he silently pleaded with what was left of his mental capacity. //Any way you can!\\

//You got it, partner.\\

"Ichigo!" a sudden voice stopped them all, except for Ichigo who was still trying to pull out the connections to his head. The fifth-squad captain stood in the doorway for a few moments before she flash stepped beside the boy, helping him tug the suction cups off and out of his head.

"Where is that idiot girl!" Kurotsuchi growled.

Rukia-taichou stood, glaring at the man. "She couldn't stop me, although she tried. If I hadn't been able to feel Ichigo's riatsu a mile away, then she might have succeeded. What do you think you're doing?!"

"Useless wench!" he cursed to himself, shooting a glare at Nemu where she stood meekly at the door.

Rukia ignored him, slightly more focused on Ichigo's current condition. Ichigo remained motionless on the floor, feeling utterly and completely drained, barely able to hear the conversation above him. The voices in his head also remained silent, whether to listen themselves or because of disgust, Ichigo wasn't sure.

He heard the fifth-squad captain say something and had to focus to hear it. "It is my business," she growled. "Because you being the--" Ichigo's mind faded out for a moment, barely hanging onto consciousness. It took him a few seconds to force his mind back again. "...The whole of the Soul Society can't work together with you breaking rules at your own pleasure."

Kurotsuchi waved his hand again, nonchalantly. "I have broken no rule. I was not told I could not perform this test."

"He's a _child_, Kurotsuchi. You had no right to put him through your experiments! Especially without any authority _or_ consent!"

"You foolish girl," he shook his head. "This was by no means an experiment. I was mapping out his brain, specifically targeting the areas containing memory. It was for his benefit and will cause no lasting damage."

Rukia grit her teeth. "No lasting damage? If he doesn't bleed to death!" With the suction cups that had clawed into his skin now absent, blood ran freely down his face, dripping onto and staining his kimono.

"That would not have happened if he hadn't torn them out by himself."

"It hurt..." Ichigo butted in quietly, just loud enough for the other two to hear. "So much."

"Psh," Kurotsuchi dismissed the boy's comment, rolling his eyes. "I did not realize you were so weak."

Rukia-taichou had apparently had just about enough. She took a step forward, seething at the other man. "If you ever come near him again," she said, her voice dangerously quiet, "I will kill you." With that, she gathered Ichigo into her arms and shunpoed out the door.

Ichigo couldn't do much but cling to her uniform. //Other me?\\ he thought. //Zangetsu-san?\\

//What do you want?\\ the hollow answered. Ichigo could feel the long-haired man there as well.

//I'm sorry,\\ he thought meekly. //I will listen to you better next time.\\ He actually felt the hollow smirk before he lost consciousness so completely even they could not reach him.

xXx

Cursing under his breath at the loss of his rather entertaining specimen, Kurotsuchi turned to the monitor, wondering exactly how he should punish the useless Nemu this time. Honestly, losing her rank was not as important as his work! She knew that! The selfish little--

He stopped his inner rant as he looked over the half-finished reading's he'd been able to take. "Oh," he said quietly to himself, his thoughts about the recent events immediately being pushed to the back burner. "This is indeed interesting." Truely, even what he had now was worth just about any punishment he'd have to face.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, you are truly entertaining. What exactly are you?"

xXx

They stood stiffly in their body, staring at the man who had greeted them and blinked.

"This is...unexpected," the fourth voice said quietly. The other three didn't answer, not exactly sure what their own thoughts were, or really what they should be for that matter.

"How can something unexpected happen to us?" One of them asked, confused.

"Apparently our time line is now in flux," the fourth voice responded.

"It seems like ya know me," the other man's grin never fell.

They blinked at him. The second voice spoke, a slight edge to his words. "Of course we know you, Ichimaru Gin."


	6. Recovery

Note: I'm basing Gin more off of the Japanese version, where he's got more of a casual accent.

"They knew too much," Rangiku said softly, peeking out of the corner of her eye at the darkened figure walking around the adjacent room. Since she'd met him—er, them—their skin had lightened a few tones, moving from a blackish-blue that reminded her more of a shadow towards a dark gray, but she didn't find it any less disconcerting. Really, he looked more like an alien than most hollows she's seen. "They knew about the Soul Society, so they can't be unsent souls, especially _American_ souls. However, I've never seen a soul like that."

Gin rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "He's not a human spirit, or an animal's spirit like Komamura," he commented, "bu' I can't sense him bein' a hollow or a blank either. A' least, not much."

Rangiku eyed him suspiciously, then nodded her head. "He also knew about Kurosaki Ichigo, and the Visored."

"Rumors 'bout Kurosaki have spread throughout the world," Gin commented, "but not too many know 'bout Visored, 'specially by that name."

"Gin, what's going on?"

The former captain shook his head and shrugged. "I dunno. Urahara actually contacted me 'bout somethin' disturbin' time or the spiritual power flow, or somethin' weird like that."

Rangiku raised her eyebrow. "Really?" she asked. "I thought you two had an agreement to not speak or step into each others' 'territories'."

"Guess i' must be important," Gin grinned at her. "Which means, we're gonna have a guest for a few days."

The shinigami shook her head with a sigh. "You're a pain, you know that?"

His creepy grin widened. "O' course."

xXx

Ichigo opened his eyelids slowly, prying them apart. He felt the bed underneath him, and the blanket over him, both trying to coax him back to sleep, but his stomach would have none of it. It growled loudly, sending sharp pangs through his body.

"Kuchiki-san, you're awake!" a pleasant voice said out loud. It had to be one of the servants. Someone who had come to...his thought process faded off as another thought crossed his mind. He didn't remember going to his room the night before, and this felt far softer than his futon. Besides, the servants never called him Kuchiki-san.

Those thoughts motivated him to finish forcing his eyes open. He looked up at an unexpected face with light purple-gray hair. He blinked again. The walls and ceiling had a warmer shade than in the Kuchiki home, and thus seemed to be far more welcoming than what he'd grown used to. He also knew that face.

"Kotetsu-fuku-taichou," he muttered. Hanatarou's squad buildings were the medic's favorite places to take Ichigo, and they often spent a good deal of time there meeting people. They'd only just begun to move onto other squad areas.

"You're not a shinigami, yet," the vice-captain smiled warmly. "I keep telling you, 'Kotetsu-san' is fine." Ichigo barely registered her words, instead putting a hand to his head and trying to remember why... He felt an unfamiliar texture under his palm instead of the normal, spiky hair. He followed it around his head with his fingers. His whole skull had been wrapped in bandages.

That's when it all came back.

"Kuchiki-san, are you alright?" the lieutenant looked on worriedly.

"Hanatarou," Ichigo looked up suddenly, his eyes full of worry, "how is he?"

Kotetsu-san blinked, obviously not expecting that kind of an answer from the boy. "He'll be fine. He was brought in yesterday just before Kuchiki-taihcou came with you. She said there was an accident at the twelfth squad barracks..." the lieutenant faded off.

"It wasn't an accident," he muttered.

The young woman sighed. "I figured as much," she said softly. She proceeded to check him over in silence and had almost finished when they heard someone enter.

"Ichigo!" Rukia-taichou's voice caused everyone in the room to stop and stare at her as she rushed over to the bed side.

Kotetsu-san smiled. "She slept here with you last night, in that bed over there," she pointed to the next bed over. "She was so worried we almost had to drug her to get her to agree to sleep."

"How long have I been sleeping?" Ichigo asked softly.

"A day and a half," Rukia-taichou responded with more than a hint of relief in her voice. "You had me worried, Ichigo."

"What happened?" he continued, not looking up.

The women exchanged glances. "Kurotsuchi-taichou and fuku-taichou will be punished for their crimes," Kotetsu-san said as she returned her eyes to Ichigo.

"Actually, I just returned from an emergency captain's meeting. You're safe from them," Rukia-taichou assured. Something in her voice caused Ichigo to pause. She wasn't telling him everything. He was just about to open his mouth and insist she do so, but then looked around. Maybe it wasn't something she could say in public.

The captain turned to the healer lieutenant. "So, how is he?"

Kotetsu-fuku-taichou smiled. "Other than the wounds on his head, he's just fine. You may take him, but he needs to rest."

"Excellent," Rukia-taichou bowed. "Thank you so much."

"I want to see Hanatarou," Ichigo cut in.

The lieutenant nodded. "I'll let him know as soon as he returns from his duties."

"Duties?" Ichigo asked.

"He had a few assignments this morning, which he insisted on doing. He'll return shortly."

"Oh," Ichgio pouted. At that, Kotetsu-fuku-taichou leaned over and whispered something to Rukia-taichou. After a few seconds, she giggled, nodding emphatically.

"I know," she laughed.

Ichigo raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "What?"

"Nothing," Rukia grinned. "Let's get you back home."

"But I only want to--"

"Now," Rukia said sternly, sending him a reproachful look. Sighing, Ichigo threw off his light-colored covers and dangled his feet over the bed.

"Make sure you bring him in tonight so we can change his bandages and make sure nothing is infected," Kotetsu-fuku-taichou said, escorting them to the door.

Rukia-taichou nodded. "Of course."

"Have a pleasant day, Rukia-taichou," the lieutenant bowed to them as they walked out.

"You as well," the captain replied, then looked pointedly at Ichigo, who rolled his eyes.

When Rukia-taichou stopped outside the door and refused to move, he finally turned around and bowed slightly. "Thank you for healing me," he said, then turned towards the door. He heard some giggles from the two women and felt his scowl deepen, although he couldn't figure out why. It's not like he knew what they were talking about.

xXx

It started off as a dull throb vaguely tugging at his the veil of unconsciousness. The more he awoke, though, the more the feeling increased. By the time his eyes opened, it had reached a point that even that simple movement sent twinges of pain out, seemingly trying to shatter his skull. Apparently all of the medication had worn off.

He let out a small groan, and cringed as that sent pain through his head. The wince didn't help either.

//Ow!\\ he thought as he forced himself to remain still, //I don't think I'll ever move again.\\

//Guess you never really change,\\ he heard his other self mutter. Ichigo willed himself to not look outwardly confused, as it would probably twist something wrong, and send more spasms of pain into him.

//What do you mean, Other Me?\\ he asked.

The hollow scoffed. //You won't move because you're afraid of hurting.\\

Ichigo huffed inwardly. //I told you, I don't like pain!\\

//You don't have to, idiot. Just don't be afraid of it.\\ The carrot-top thought on that for a minute, then decided he still didn't get it. The hollow threw his hands in the air in exasperation. //Pain lets us know something is wrong with our body, but other than that it's USELESS. It gets in the way of living and fighting! If you let your fear of pain rule you, you'll be just as useless!\\

//I...guess that makes sense,\\ Ichigo thought back, conceding the point.

//Maybe you do change then,\\ his other self sounded amused for some reason.

//So...\\ the boy started, //What do I do about it?\\

He could have sworn the hollow muttered under his breath, something about "idiots who can't think for themselves" before he spoke up dryly. //For starters, you could get up.\\

xXx

It took almost a week after Ichigo returned to the Kuchiki household before the Central 46 got around to Kurotsuchi Mayuri's trial. Ever since the council had been rebuilt, proceedings had gotten slower and slower. They weren't nearly as strict about rules as the old council had been, which had brought about a lot of changes, some good, some not so good.

Byakuya sighed as he stepped into the house, dropping his robe on Kana's outstretched hands as she greeted him at the entrance. Then he proceeded down the hallway to his sister's room, knocking on the door. He heard her come to slide it open. As soon as she saw him, she bowed politely.

"Nii-san," she greeted.

"I have the ruling."

She froze, tensing up immediately. The ruling had taken several hours to come to, and though even Byakuya could see he was trying, Ichigo had found it very difficult to stay still. After an hour or so of figiting, Rukia had just taken him home. Now she stood back up slowly and looking at her older brother expectantly.

He continued, "Probation."

"What?!" she practically shrieked. "He nearly kills Ichigo and that's all they do?"

"Punishment for unspecified experimentation on souls is imprisonment, but if he was given this punishment, it would raise too many questions in the public mind, such as what experiments were being done and the identity of the boy, both of which are confidential. Furthermore, they would wonder why the Seireitei would go to such lengths to give a punishment on behalf of a mere Rukongai boy. As he is not yet officially of the Kuchiki household," he ignored Rukia's wince at those words, "we cannot claim to pursue such a matter. However, this does not mean it was overlooked. The Sou-taichou himself spoke against Kurotsuchi, although not necessarily on Ichigo's behalf. As such, Kurotsuchi Mayuri has been placed on an indefinite probation."

Rukia sighed. "I suppose it is better than nothing, but still..."

"How is he?"

The dark-haired girl shook her head. "He's...well," she paused, apparently trying to find the correct phrase.

Just then, a noise had them both turning to look down the hall just in time to see a small body come dashing at them, feet pounding on the wooden floorboards. He had dark hair, so it had to be one of Ichgo's playmates. He was about to pass the two captains when Byakuya reached a hand out, catching him and easily holding him back. The boy paused, realizing he no longer moved, and frantically looked up. His face paled several shades when he saw who he'd 'run into'.

"Do not run in these halls," Byakuya said in a soft but very stern voice.

"B-but, he'll catch me!" The brown-haired child squeaked as he looked over his shoulder.

"Who will--"

"Found you!" Ichigo yelled down the hall and grinned. "And no shunpo, like I promised!" He began to run towards them when he noticed the two captains.

"Hi Rukia, Byakuya," he reached out a hand to grab the now lividly frantic boy when he realized what he'd just said and froze, looking up at the officers. Both of them stared down at him with more than a little surprise (and in Byakuya's case, a fair amount of distaste) on their faces.

Ichigo immediately bowed, now looking almost as panicked as the other boy. "I'm sorry!" he practically shouted. "Rukia-taichou, Kuchiki-taichou!"

The two captains exchanged glances. Then Rukia bent down and touched Ichigo on the shoulder. "It's alright, as long as it doesn't happen again, okay?" Ichigo relaxed immediately, looking up gratefully at Rukia.

Byakuya released the boy he'd been holding, standing erect as he continued to stare down at the orange-haired boy. "You may continue your game outside. Do not use this house for your pleasure, and do not tear your wounds open again." He pointed to Ichigo, who still had a few bandages wrapped around his head.

"Y-yes, Kuchiki-taichou," the two boys said in unison, then walked as quickly as their feet would let them to the nearest hall and turned. As soon as they were out of sight, both captains heard them sprint for the door, and sighed.

"It seems," Rukia said, continuing her previous thought, "he's been acting a lot more like his old self. I'm just...after what happened, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing."

They continued to watch the hallway, almost as if expecting the two boys to come back around the corner. 'It is not good,' Byakuya mused to himself. He never had gotten along very well with Kurosaki Ichigo. Perhaps it was for that reason that the thought of the younger Ichigo growing up to be the Kurosaki Ichigo he used to know almost filled him with a sense of dread. He didn't say anything to Rukia.

xXx

"We need directions to an area we can reach in the next 12.5 minutes that has a three-mile radius of uninhabited land."

Gin and Rangiku blinked at the Representatives.

"That was...random," the strawberry blond girl couldn't help but stare blankly.

"You cannot find one soon enough," the fourth voice insisted, standing politely and staring at them, at least she thought they stared at her, as she couldn't make out the eyes very well. They'd just been going over a few plans dealing with Rangiku's assignments when the Representatives had calmly shuffled into the back room of Gin's small, warehouse-like base, asking for directions of all things.

She stared at them for several more seconds before she heard the rustling of papers behind her. Gin pulled out one particularly large map of the area and laid it on the table. Rangiku immediately recognized it as one of the intricate maps of the local areas that she had been helping Gin update. Why he needed them, she couldn't begin to guess. He claimed he needed an intimate knowledge of the area he'd be working in. She didn't know whether to believe him or not. Still they seemed to come in handy every now and then.

"Three mile radius, y' say?" Gin asked, studying the map intently.

"At least," the fourth voice said calmly.

"Looks like we have one place," the ex-shinigami pointed to the map, looking up to see if it would work for them. "Here."

"That would be adequate," the Representatives nodded. "Also," the older sounding voice continued, looking back up to stare at the sliver-haired man, "we need to know how many people might be in the area. Anyone near us at the time probably will not survive. This includes yourself."

Gin looked at the shadow-like figure hard (which looked very strange with his perpetual smile) for several seconds. "There could be any number of kids ou' there, bu' it's been cloudy 'nuff tha' it's pretty unlikely." He continued to stare for a few more moments before he spoke again, "Y' also hafta wear a video feed."

The four voices hesitated for a minute, then nodded. "Very well."

"What?" the first voice screeched.

"We can't agree to that!" the second voice agreed.

"Too late. Let's go!" Gin grinned at them and held up a set of car keys. "Never had one of these in the Soul Society."

"Oh, please no," Rangiku muttered from the corner.

Gin's smile only widened as he lead the way out the front door.


	7. Unmaker

"GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINN!" Rangiku shrieked as they skidded around a corner at 40 miles per hour only to speed back up to 80 in about six seconds.

"WEEEEEEEEEE!" One of the representatives called out beside her. If she would have dared to take her eyes off of the road, she would have stared at them incredulously. How in the World, the Soul Society _and_ Hueco Mundo could someone actually _enjoy _this kind of torture?

One of the other voices (she couldn't concentrate on which one at the moment) started to yell, apparently at himself. "HOW CAN YOU BEGIN TO LIKE THIS SUICIDE?!"

The other voice replied back in a sincerely innocent tone. "I've never been in a car before. I didn't know it would be this fun. What's wrong, you guys?"

"I've been in a car, and this is _not_ how someone is supposed to drive the--" whatever he'd been about to say was cut off by the blaring of a loud horn of some oncoming vehicle.

"Next time I'll follow with Shunpo!" Rangiku screeched. Vaguely she wondered how Gin had talked her into getting _into_ the car in the first place. "There's a _reason_ they don't have these in the Soul Society!"

"None o' you are any fun," Gin said through his ear-to-ear grin as he slid around another corner. "'Sept for you, kid," he nodded over to the representatives, obviously meaning the one who had yelled happily earlier.

"KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!" Rangiku shrieked.

Five heart-racing, adrenalin pumping minutes later, they screeched loudly to a stop in front of a large, open field. "This work?" Gin asked, looking over at the two passengers.

Rangiku couldn't open her mouth to say anything, gripping the seat with one hand and bracing herself against the dashboard with the other. Her normally rosy complexion had turned into an ashen white, contrasting sharply with her shinigami uniform, and it took all the mental will she had to keep the contents of her stomach down. She'd fought hollows, blanks and arrancar, heck, she'd had her insides practically torn out, and yet she felt she'd prefer to face those over Gin's driving any day.

The representatives, on the other hand, had already opened the door, stumbling outside with more than a little effort.

"Wow, it's hard to walk when we're dizzy like this." Vaguely, the shinigami realized that was the comparatively innocent voice who represented the soul talking again.

"Ya think?" either the first or the second voice answered sarcastically.

"We must hurry," the fourth voice said, sounding as calm as ever. Was that man's psyche made of steel nerves?

"Don't think we should try shunpo," the second voice muttered.

The fourth voice agreed. "Not in this condition when we have only just gotten marginal control to begin with."

"What about Sonido?" the first voice asked.

"Like you have any better control than we do," the second voice shot.

"Rangiku-chan," Gin said suddenly. The shinigami forced her head to turn. "Why don' you take 'em?"

She opened her mouth to say something, but the ex-shinigami had already slid out of the car, grabbing a bucket from the back seat before traipsing after the Representatives. She heard Gin telling them to stop moving so they could wear the feed they'd promised. It took her several more seconds before she could move her body. At that point, she couldn't get out of the car fast enough.

"AAAAAAAA!" she yelled as she stumbled up to them. "My hair!" Trying not to look too flustered, she started to try and comb out the mess that had become a mop on the top of her head with her fingers.

"That's the Matsumoto I remember," the second voice chuckled. Both Gin and Rangiku paused, giving him strange looks. If they knew her like that, they'd have had to meet off of the battlefield. Rangiku may have been many things, but lax in her battles was not one of them. Well, at least usually...

"We must leave," the fourth said, urgency lacing his tone.

"What's going on?"

The Representatives paused and turned to blink at her. "Can't you feel it?" they asked, too many tones for her to recognize only one.

She glanced over at Gin, wondering if she'd missed something, but he looked just as perplexed as she did (well, for Gin). "Feel what?"

"They are not integrated into the stream as we are," the fourth voice answered.

A look of understanding (at least, she thought it was understanding) overtook their still difficult-to-define features. "Oh," at least two tones answered.

"Please," they turned towards Rangiku, the fourth voice speaking again. "We must hurry. Three miles." She looked over at Gin, who shrugged and turned to walk back to the car, probably to set up the recording equipment in the trunk (although, she'd be very surprised if it weren't damaged to some level).

Rangiku pushed down her feelings of unease and annoyance. Her mouth set in a thin line, she walked over to the darkened figure and placed one arm around her neck. Their skin felt...strange, almost fluid to the touch, warm but cold at the same time. She willed herself to not shy away from it.

"Once we get there, you must leave immediately," the fourth voice said, looking down at her. From this close proximity, she could actually clearly see a lot of his features. The flesh seemed to wash around his face, as if it hadn't decided where it wanted to take root. However, his face didn't seem to really change, and he—they, she reminded herself—looked vaguely familiar...

"Do you understand?" the fourth voice asked, his shoulder-length (was that hair? She'd always thought it was some sort of strange growth) whipping around as he turned to look down at her. His 'eyes' had always been hard for her to distinguish, as they were the same color as everything else, but now she could see them boring into her own, even if only in a vague outline.

Finally, she nodded and flash stepped forward.

xXx

There were several things Ichigo didn't like. Renji, pain, getting caught, and being woken up in the middle of the night to name a few. Like most eight-year-olds, he tended to be rather grumpy if he didn't get enough sleep, not to mention he always felt better after a good night's rest.

Which was why, when he felt the presence appear in his room, he couldn't help but let out a menacing growl along with his sleep-filled glare. The man that stood in his room wore a shinigami uniform covered with a purple and blue robe. He stood so his face would remain covered in shadows so Ichigo couldn't see it.

"Who're you?" he grumped, rubbing one of his eyes with a fist.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," the unfamiliar voice said. Immediately Ichigo's eyes flew open wide. Only the captains, Hinamori-fuku-taichou and Hanatarou knew his name, and this guy didn't ring any familiarity bells. Not his voice, not his stance, not the robe. As far as Ichigo knew he'd never seen this person before.

"You are undoubtedly wondering why I know your real name," the man continued, causing Ichigo to narrow his eyes suspiciously. "Please do not be alarmed, I am a friend."

"Prove it," Ichigo shot, his hand reaching for his empty back out of habit.

The man raised his hands, then slowly reached down for his belt and Zanpaktou scabbard. Ichigo jumped up when he realized this, taking a ready stance on his bed and waited for the man to attack. Instead, the rough hands undid the belt, letting the Zanpaktou gently fall to the ground. Surprised, Ichigo blinked down at the weapon, and then back up at the man.

"I only bring a message," the man said. "You are being targeted."

"Huh?" Ichigo asked. "Targeted? Why? Who?"

The man sighed. "We do not know for certain. All we know about the being in question is his title: Unmaker."

"That's lame," Ichigo muttered.

The man shrugged. "We do not know what form he will take when he comes for you, but his powers are immense. They reach levels we have not encountered before."

//Wait, we?\\ The hollow said.

Ichigo blinked. "We" meant there were more of them. "What do you mean by 'we'?" he asked, still suspicious, much to his inner voices' approvals.

"I cannot say," the man shook his head sadly. "But I can say what you have seen so far, both in this life and in your previous life, cannot compare."

Ichigo felt Zangetsu stiffen in his mind while the hollow's mouth dropped open. //Not even Aizen?\\ the hollow prodded. Ichigo repeated the question.

The man nodded, and the hollow whistled. //That is unfortunate,\\ Zangetsu muttered.

//Who's Aizen?\\ Ichigo asked.

//We'll explain later,\\ Other Me muttered.

"Why is he after me?" Ichigo focused back on the man, suddenly feeling extremely uneasy.

Again, the man shook his head. "We do not know."

"How do you know he's after me, then?"

The man raised a hand to his head, scratching it absently. "We...think it has something to do with the future."

"What?" Ichigo asked, more than a little confused.

"We have some power dealing with time," the man explained, obviously being as vague as he could be. "Although we cannot predict the specific future accurately, we do know that you play an intricate role in the times to come in the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo and Earth, as well as any adjacent plains of existence."

Ichigo scratched his head, a hundred questions floating through it. 'Adjacent plains of existence'? They predict the future? Who is 'they'? What is 'they'? How can they know that person is targeting him, but not know who the man is? Was he even a man? How could they know he wasn't a 'she' if they didn't know anything else about him? How could Ichigo have such an important role in the development of the world? He was just an eight-year-old soul. With all of this flitting across his brain, he decided to start at the beginning, reaffirming what the man had already said.

"So you think he's coming after me because I'm supposed to be important?"

The man nodded. "Yes, but that is all I can say for now," he said, just as Ichigo opened his mouth to ask some more questions. "We will do what we can to help."

"Wait!" Ichigo yelled, but the man and his Zanpaktou had vanished in a haze of kido.

Ichigo sat down, staring at the spot where the man had stood, wondering if this were all a whacked-out dream.

"Ichigo!" Rukia-taichou and about three servants came rushing into the bedroom. "We heard you shout, are you okay?"

The boy shook his head. "There was a guy here."

Rukia-taichou blinked. "A guy..." she closed her eyes, feeling around for any trace riatsu, but couldn't find anything. She opened her eyes and looked over at Ichigo with a raised eyebrow. Maybe his wounds were still getting to him, despite the fact that they had almost fully healed.

"Alright, we'll look around," she promised. "But I want you to get back to bed."

He nodded and lay back as she closed the door. He heard whispered voices on the other side for a while before three sets of feet began to walk away. That mean at least one of the servants (probably Kana) would stand watch outside the door. He frowned, knowing this would do nothing to stop the man if he wanted to come back.

//So,\\ he finally turned inside, //Who's Aizen?\\

xXx

No sooner had Matsumoto landed in the approximate area, than the very atmosphere began to warp around them. The shinigami looked around, more than a little wary and confused.

"You promised," the fourth voice said calmly. "If you do not leave now, you may not be able to escape."

The shinigami looked hard at them for a moment, debating whether she should go or stay. In the end, she set her jaw and disappeared.

"I hope the warping of reality doesn't impede her too much," the figure muttered, watching her leave.

"She'll be fine," the first voice said distractedly, sounding all to gleeful.

"I can't believe you're looking forward to this," the second voice muttered.

The first voice scoffed. "You're just as excited as I am."

The second voice shook their head. "Not when we can't do much of anything to defend ourselves."

"He is here," the fourth voice interrupted him, and they all focused the body's eyes on the figure that appeared before them, slowly fading into existence.

"I can't believe he has that much more control than we do!" the third voice pouted. "He's already as solid as we are."

"He merely copied us," the fourth voice spoke, sounding grave. "And improved, I see."

The figure looked up, his skin lightening through gray and finally settling on a light brownish color. Large eyes and golden irises burning with an inner flame looked up, glaring at the representatives.

"I have finally found you," he hissed, his voice as unused and harsh as theirs had first been, although his control seemed far greater. One hand held a sword that he brought up before his face. "I will not let you destroy this world again, Unmaker."

* * *

Thanks again to Daricio and Shells who are being awesome and beta reading this for me! :D


	8. Representatives

Warning: This chapter is "Representative Heavy", as in there's hardly anything with anyone else. Please bare with me, there's a reason for it. Thanks!

* * *

"I will not let you destroy this world again, Unmaker," the man hissed, his unused voice harsh and grating. His auburn, spiky, unkempt hair stuck out at odd angles, giving him the appearance of a crazed animal, although his stance gave away nothing but control.

"This is not the first time you have come here," the fourth voice pointed out, nodding towards the man's mostly normal appearance and dark clothing. He wore short, black robes highlighted with zaps of color. Beneath that, he wore hakama pants and a black shirt.

The crazed look deepened. "Always the perceptive one, eh gramps?"

"Don't call him 'gramps'!" the soul voice spoke out defensively.

"Why not?" he almost looked genuinely curious as he cocked his head at them. "As I recall two of you have a similar name for him."

"That's none of your business," the hollow voice snapped.

The fourth voice shook their head. "No, there is no 'him' anymore. We are one."

"Not quite, thankfully," the hollow voice muttered.

The man's eyes narrowed. "And if it hadn't been for you, none of this would have happened."

"Look," the human voice said, sounding all too tired, "It's not like we meant it."

"Then you will let me end your existence here?" the man asked, watching the representatives warily.

"How hard is it for you to rip a hole in reality?" the hollow voice spoke, his tone menacing but gleeful. "Even if you're done it before, or are following someone. You may have more control than us, but we all know you cannot begin to match up to our power."

"You have more of a sense of space and time, which is why I suspect you could find us at all," the forth voice said, as calm as ever. "But even you cannot enter if we block your path."

The man continued to glare. "Like you have the ability to do that." Then, without warning, disappeared.

"Now!" the second voice yelled, and then everything exploded.

xXx

Rangiku and Gin watched the screen with a focus and intent neither had felt since the Final War.

The representatives began talking about power, and then the other man vanished. //That's shunpo!\\ Rangiku thought, eyes wide and directed at the screen in astonishment. //But he wasn't wearing a shinigami uniform...\\ She turned to Gin and opened her mouth just as the screen went white. It flashed for a moment, causing the two spirits to shield their eyes before turning back to a screen now filled with static. Moments later, a bright explosion in the distance brought their attention to the field, followed by a rumbling noise and a blast of wind that caught them, whipping their clothes and hair around mercilessly.

"What was that?" Rangiku couldn't help but ask when it finally ended. She shuddered, "It felt like someone just released a pure riatsu bomb." Gin reached for the controls and rewound the recorded data. It took him a few minutes to play with the knobs and buttons before they could get a fairly clear picture out of the still frames. He began to forward each one of them, muttering something about 'technology' she couldn't make out.

Finally, Gin tapped the screen. "You're right," he said simply, that ever present smile absently playing with his mouth. Rangiku nodded, her eyes wide when she saw the intense density of the purple riatsu on the screen. One screen it hadn't existed. There had been a definite glow in the next one, an almost solid wall in the third one and then the purple fading to white in the last still. It had happened in less than a second. Even trained eyes would have difficulty catching it at normal speed.

"What about them?" Rangiku asked, her eyes now searching the field. "I'm having a hard time picking up any Riatsu because of the residue of that explosion." After a few more seconds of scanning the darkened horizon, she turned back to glance at Gin, who was still studying the screen of the equipment set up to stick out of the trunk of the car. "I'm going to go look for them."

"Ya want ta do that?" The shinigami froze at the tone in the other man's voice and turned to look at him. He simply smiled over at her, his face otherwise unreadable. She hadn't heard him speak like that since the wars...

Silently, she continued to stare at him. Obviously he had something to say, and she knew better than to run off without hearing it. After a short pause he nodded towards the fields. "We dunno what that was," he continued with that infuriating grin never faltering. "You don' want ta get caught in the consequences, do ya?"

"I guess not," she muttered. "I'm going up to keep a lookout."

"Good," he nodded and went back to his screen. Rangiku shook her head, and jumped into the sky, gathering spirit particles beneath her feet so she could stand as if on solid ground. Once at a sufficient height, she crouched down, looking hard over the field, but again saw nothing.

She'd been scanning with her eyes for a few minutes before she saw something move. Slowly, but surely, a dark-gray skinned creature that almost blended into the shadows slumped along.

"Gin," she said loudly, flash-stepping down to land next to him. "He's alive, and on his way."

"Good, good," Gin's grin widened. "'Cause I got a lot of questions for them."

xXx

The _biggest_ problem dealing with jumping (or in this case, being shoved by Unmaker) back to the void was running into his old self and the others. Linear beings couldn't comprehend living outside of time, and as such, to even continue to exist, as such, time still seemed to move forward to them...but it was all an illusion.

In reality, whenever one jumped back to the void, they would exist simultaneously with who they used to be and with any future selves that would return. He'd long since lost count of how many times he'd heard himself and other voices here, or what they said. It never got easier to remain separate or whole. When he was here, he had to cut himself off as best he could by focusing on himself, on his thoughts and his memories alone. Often he wondered just how much he really had lost.

That was one reason why he hated them—those four voices. Their oppressive being had sapped so much of his memories and strength during their stay in the void, probably without them even knowing. In a space that was, by definition, not space at all, those with strong minds overpowered the other, weaker intelligences. Truthfully, he found it amazing that any of the countless beings trapped there had any sense of 'self' left. Perhaps having had to live like this even before coming to the void—integrated, fractured, simultaneously existing—was why the four could keep themselves so well. While he and every other being that existed outside of time slowly lost themselves, _they_ became calmer and more sane as their own perceived time moved on. Their sheer power on top of that just made it worse.

Even now, he could feel them. Their smothering, oppressive existence bombarded him. Trying to tune them out, he felt for the time stream. It didn't take him long to locate their block. Crude, even by his inexperienced standards, but effective because of that sheer power of his. Strange how it could block him out 'now', but not his previous self.

//Three Dimensional beings cannot fully comprehend anything more,\\ he thought tiredly to himself, hearing his thoughts echoed from his own other minds a million other times as he'd come to that conclusion so very long ago (at least to his mind).

So now he had two choices: try and head them off at the critical point later on, or go back even further and patiently wait it out. He hated pretending to be patient. He hated having to wait as well, but he knew his duty. Their oppressive existence could not be overlooked. Simply by being they endangered the world, and he would not allow that. He could never allow that. If that meant he had to patiently wait for him, he would.

Mind made up, he sensed for the right period of time, just before...and then the right place. He found himself thankful for the billionth time that he had the natural ability to sense the infinitesimal pin-prick of time and space that was the Earth and the Soul Society. It caused him no end of amusement to wonder how many times _they _had tried and failed. He could sense their entry points. There were a lot of them.

Mentally, he braced himself, and dug into the timeline yet again, and hopefully for the last time.

xXx

"What 'xactly was that?" Gin asked the representatives sprawled on the seat beside him in the car. Rangiku followed outside, adamantly refusing to 'ever touch that car again', so they had a little more breathing room (not that Gin was too happy about that). Almost immediately after the strawberry-blond woman had seen the representatives, they'd collapsed and the former captain had insisted on aiding them himself. It hadn't been difficult to find him or bring him back to the car. It had, however, surprised Gin that despite using their spiritual energy like a tiny nuclear bomb and probably setting some sort of seal on space and time (judging from their earlier conversation with the strange man), they had not dropped out of consciousness once.

"What was what?" the voice he'd come to know represented the humans muttered. "The man or our actions?

At this, Gin's smile widened. "Both, 'o course."

The representatives smiled slightly. "The man is someone who followed us from the Void and the technique we used was...difficult to explain."

"We have time," the silver-haired man commented.

"You'd think so." This time he recognized the hollow speaking. Even he had to admit it was strange to talk to so many different individuals like this.

"What does tha' mean?" he asked suspiciously.

"Why should we tell you anything?" the hollow snapped.

Gin shrugged, keeping his face in his normal grin. He had a few hypothesis as to who these people really were, and this could very well be his chance to figure everything out. "Why shouldn't cha?"

He looked back ahead, keeping his eyes on the road (now that he was following the speed limit, the ride was much smother), but glancing over at the greyish body every few seconds.

"This coming from a man who betrayed the society he'd been working with for almost a century," the human voice muttered.

"True," he said, grinning over at them.

"Always were plain creepy," the human voice muttered before going on. "And you left your comrade behind," he accused.

Gin raised his eyebrows. "What, Tousen? If ya know me, than ya shoul' know I wasn't ever on Aizen's side, so Tousen wasn't really my 'comrade'. But then again, I was never with the Soul Society either."

"Why did you go with them, then?"

Gin raised an eyebrow, adding another level of creepy to his grinning expression. "With Aizen? 'Cause he found me when I was little under...interestin' circumstances just after I graduated from the Shinigami Academy an'. He offered me a seat, so I took it. Was with him basically from the beginnin'...besides, his ideas were fun."

The hollow voice snorted. "You're just like Kenpachi. Love to fight," he said, although he didn't sound like he disapproved.

The silver-haired man shrugged, strangely avoided that comment as he continued his story. "With no where else ta go, I decided to come here."

"Because they'll have a hard time bringing you back from the real world, let alone another country with a completely different death system," the human voice said. "Makes sense."

"Oh, I get it!" the soul voice spoke up again. "So when they found out, they wanted to keep an eye on you, which is why they wanted to send a Shinigami here."

Gin's grin widened. "They wanted to send a vice captain, but from what I hear, it took six different captains petitionin' to get the Sou-taichou to even consider Rangiku-chan."

"Toshiro heading the party," the representatives nodded. Gin raised an eyebrow again, looking back at the figure. So they not only knew just about everything that had happened, they knew many of the captains on a first-name basis. Actually, that shot his last serious hypothesis out of the air. There was just no way for any of them to really know him.

He could guess that because they shared the same mind, they probably could sense each other's thoughts (a statement proven a few times) so if one of them knew him, then the others would too. That aside, he ruled out the human mind almost immediately. He could count on two hands the humans he knew and had actually talked to. He doubted it was the hollow, because then they'd probably all want to kill him since their side had lost the war. He had little to no idea about the fourth voice, so he'd left him out for the moment,making sure to keep him in mind for later, which left the soul voice.

Of course that didn't help much. He'd lived in the Soul Society and Rukongai for over 150 years before the Winter War. Of course, the soul would have to know Toshiro as a captain. That narrowed it down quite a bit, but at the same time it still bothered him. He really didn't know if it was the soul voice who knew them at all.

Then there was the way they talked, sounding like they all knew him, and not just from one individual's memories. It just didn't make sense that anyone he'd known in the past would.... His thought process faded off and his eyes widened suddenly.

"Oi," he turned to them, blinking away his surprise. "Are you all from the future?"

The representatives lifted their heads to stare at him in admiration (well, it looked like admiration, he still quite couldn't fully tell). "We wondered when you'd figure it out."

The fourth voice spoke up for the first time. "He discovered in under a week. It seems, I win the bet."

"So, do I come to know ya in the future then?"

The representatives raised a hand to rub the back of their head absently. "No," they said. "You see, in the future, we destroy the world."


	9. Lieutenant and Captain

Thank you for all the reviews! *hug* And thank you for sticking with this.

* * *

"Ichigo should be there about now," Rukia muttered to herself, glancing out the window. She didn't know why she felt nervous. After all, this meeting had to come, but for some reason, it really bothered her. It wasn't the fact that they hadn't been able to find anything after Ichigo's little 'outburst' three nights before. She chalked that one up to a dream. But something about this particular situation had butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

Hinamori looked up from her seat in front of the desk where she'd been helping with some of the paperwork. "Are you worried about Kurosaki-taichou?" she asked quietly. Rukia couldn't help but send a warning glance the other woman's way.

"Don't call him that," she said tersely. "Not even in here with just the two of us. If we do, it'll become too familiar and much easier to slip up. Ichigo-san will do for now."

The brown haired girl nodded. "Hai." They continued on in silence for a few more minutes before the lieutenant looked up. "Eto..." she voiced softly.

"What is it?" Rukia asked, not looking up from the document she'd signed.

"Um, why is keeping his identity secret so important?"

Rukia looked up. "The Sou-taichou has his reasons," she said before returning to the paper in front of her. "But," she continued without looking up, "it's mostly to stop panic from spreading. He's not so worried about the officers knowing, but if it got to the wrong person, it would look terribly suspicious, not to mention the idea of people being able to suddenly remember their lives if they've forgotten."

Hinamori nodded. "It's for his safety."

The captain nodded. "He didn't mind much at all when I reported that you had discovered the secret," she said. "It's just the lower seated officers or other shinigami that might have contact with the Rukongai who may not have the common sense to keep the secret that he's worried about. It's not a secret we can't discuss it in the open even, just as long as we don't make it a general announcement." With that she looked up and smiled.

"So why are you worried about him now?"

Rukia blinked at her lieutenant for a moment before sitting back with her smile widening. Hinamori tended to come off as a very shy and quiet girl, although dependable. Much like Hanatarou, now that she thought about it. It became very easy to forget sometimes that she was an intelligent, observant woman, even much more so since the situation with Aizen.

"He's meeting Hisagi today," Rukia said. "It's nothing major, but he and Ichigo worked together quite often. Several things could happen. Now that he's starting to get his memories back, it could cause the block that's sealed off his memories to dissolve completely."

"What would happen to Ku—Ichigo-san then?" Hinamori asked worriedly.

Rukia sighed. "It could drive him insane, or kill him outright with a mental overload. Maybe it will just bring the old Ichigo back, which would be favorable, but still cause a lot of problems if it's sudden. Then we can take into consideration what Kurotsuchi did to him...we just don't know."

Hinamori blinked at Rukia for a few seconds before she returned to her work. Then she looked back up and smiled.

"Don't worry, Captain," she said cheerfully, "I'm sure everything will be just fine."

Rukia smiled. "Yeah."

xXx

"Hisagi-fuku-taichou," Hanatarou bowed deeply before the ninth squad vice captain respectfully. Beside him, Ichigo followed his example.

"Hanatarou-san," the ninth squad's fuku-taichou nodded with a face that could have been carved from stone. Ichigo vaguely remembered him from the flashback he'd had during Kurotsuchi's experiment. This man was supposed to be Ichigo's Lieutenant. As soon as he stood back up, he couldn't help but stare at the tattoos covering the man's head and neck. He didn't look friendly at all.

Hisagi-fuku-taichou stared hard at Ichigo for several moments before he turned back to Hanatarou. "Kuchiki-taichou said you would come by."

"Y-yes," Hanatarou smiled, sweating slightly. He liked the ninth squad lieutenant, and normally had no problem with him, but sometimes he felt like the man could read his mind, or knew all of his secrets and just...didn't care. Hanatarou was sure that he'd care about this one though, but he was still under orders to not tell.

"This is Kuchiki Ichigo," he gestured towards the boy who was still staring up at the man.

"Pleased to meet you," Ichigo muttered. He could definitely see the man's expression begin to take on a hint of annoyance.

_Flash_

"_Why do you fight so much, Captain?" Hisagi said, his tone dry. He'd even begun to look a little annoyed. Ichigo couldn't help but grin through the slight pain that pulled at his still healing mouth. If Hisagi showed it, that meant anyone else would be wanting to pull out their hair...or their Zanpaktou..._

_Flash_

"He was curious about his namesake, and wanted to know more about Kurosaki-taichou."

Hisagi went to open his mouth but Ichigo beat him to it. "Let's go, Hanatarou," he muttered and turned to walk out. The medic blinked, then looked frantically between Ichigo's retreating back and the now fairly surprised looking Vice Captain.

"I-Ichigo-san!" he started after Ichigo, who had stooped down to grab his shoes.

"We're annoying him," Ichigo said. "He has other things to do, right?"

Hanatarou looked like he'd been caught between a rock and a hard place. "Y-yes, but Rukia-sa--"

"Then let's go," Ichigo said firmly, standing on the ground below the wooden platform floor of the ninth squad building.

"Hold on," Hisagi's voice stopped his hand reaching out for the door in mid-air. He turned to look over his shoulder at the acting captain. "As of right now, I have cleared my schedule per request of the fifth-squad captain. It was not an easy matter, so I suggest you don't make my efforts go to waste."

Ichigo turned back around and stared at his hand for several seconds, then looked at the sliding door only inches away.

"Please, Ichigo-san," Hantarou said quietly. "For Rukia-san?"

Slowly Ichigo lowered his arm. He still felt the urge to tell the guy to find something else to do and walk out, but then he'd lose his chance. He'd become fascinated with his former self. How could one person cause so many different reactions? How could so many people who knew him look up to him when others couldn't stand the guy? What he really wondered, was how he could be that same person.

He continued to look at the doorway, but did not make another move for it. "Fine," he said quietly, "Please, tell me what you know."

xXx

"Why do you keep staring at me?" Ichigo asked as they ate in the ninth squad dining area. It was by no means as welcoming as the fourth squad dining area. While the fourth squad seemed to have been built ages ago and used again and again, this building took on a newer feel. The fourth squad had a welcoming cream color with some chipped paint, while this room had fairly recently been given several coats of a much darker shade, akin to charcoal or black.

Hisagi shrugged. "I can see why she picked you," he said, picking up his sake cup and taking a sip. "You look just like him."

"Yeah," Ichigo muttered. "I just need a haircut. That's what everyone says."

Hanatarou looked more than a little distressed at the current tense atmosphere. "Why don't you tell Ichigo what kind of a person Kurosaki-taichou was," he hesitantly suggested. Hisagi shot him a look that made him immediately fix his eyes on his food.

Then the vice captain looked over at Ichigo and tipped his head as if to say 'why not'. "Kurosaki Ichigo was the biggest pain in the--"

"Hisagi-fuku-taichou!" Hanatarou cut in, panicking as he looked between the other two at the table.

"--that the soul society has ever seen." The vice captain continued, eying Hanatarou with his nonchalant face.

Ichigo blinked. //I knew I liked him,\\ his other self muttered from the depths of his mind. They sat in silence for several moment before Hisagi continued.

"But," he said, his voice dropping several volume levels, "he was one of the bravest, hardest working and most loyal souls I have ever seen."

Ichigo couldn't help his face from twisting into confusion, his chopsticks half way from the bowl to his mouth. "How could he be both?

Hisagi shook his head. "I tried to figure that out several times. He had a blatant disregard for his superiors, and a knack for getting on their nerves, but he always went out of his way to protect his subordinates. He was strict with the squad, but only on duty. Off duty he'd be just as likely to be going with them or planning something even more stupid than anything they'd do.

"He earned the equivalent of a high-school education and a minor diploma from a college on Earth while holding down the fort here. I don't know when he slept. And the only reason he did it, was to prove everyone who said he couldn't wrong.

The Lieutenant took another sip before continuing on. "He also took the brunt of a lot of the problems, a lot like Captain Tousen..." the man swished his drink around in the little bowl for a moment, watching it with a slight smile and glazed eyes. "They didn't want anyone else to know how hard they were working."

Ichigo tried to picture what the man said, hoping to remember something--anything, even if he wasn't sure if what Hisagi meant what he said to be 'good' or not. "He got in fights almost more often than the eleventh squad members did, and had more raw power than most of the Lieutenants and some of the captains combined. And that was without that stupid mask of his." Both Ichigo and Hanatarou froze up at that, exchanging glances.

"So they told you," Hisagi commented, not looking up, "that he was a Visored. He hated that mask more than the soul society did."

"Why?" Ichigo suddenly butted in.

Hisagi raised an eyebrow. "I don't know. Probably hated what it represented. The enemy."

Ichigo frowned, but said nothing.

"He showed me once," the vice captain said, almost as an after thought, "I approached him, asked him if he would let me see. At first he hid behind excuses. 'It had been in his agreement to the Soul Society to not bring it out', 'it was too much trouble', 'it was too dangerous'. Then he turned around and asked me why I wanted to see it." Hisagi paused and drained his current saucer, then he reached over and tipped the bottle of sake to spill just a little more into it.

"What did you tell him?" Ichigo pressed.

Hisagi shrugged. "Can't remember exactly what I said. I basically told him that I needed to know my captain as well as I could before I could trust him. He didn't answer me, so I left. Three days later, he calls me to a shielded training area in the middle of the night. At the time, I had no idea what he wanted." The lieutenant chuckled. "He told me I had 15 seconds to observe, reached up and pulled the thing on right out of thin air." At this, Hisagi shook his head as if to rid himself of the mental image. "I have only ever seen one other thing in my life that got to me more than that mask did."

"What happened?" Hanatarou asked breathlessly.

The vice-captain shrugged. "Normally, he easily ran circles around me, almost always kicked my butt in sparring, and generally showed off. When he put that thing on, it felt like up until that point, I'd been watching him in slow motion. Thing is, his moves...no, the very atmosphere around him felt..." he paused, trying to find the right word. "Malicious" he finally said. "There was an aggression there that he never had otherwise. By the time I realized what had been going on, he had my sword in one hand and my Lieutenant Badge in the other one. This was all without his bankai.

"After that, he made the thing vanish and all I could do was stare at him. He walked up to me and asked if I could trust him now." Hisagi smiled respectfully, reliving the memory as he stared at his sake bottle. "I realized what it meant to him, and what he had decided to trust me with. I don't even think Rukia-taichou has see that mask. Not like that. Him doing that that...how could I not trust him more? When I told him that, he just turned and walked away, calling me naive." The dark-haired man's face deadpanned. "Barely 21, and he actually told me I was naive. That's the kind of guy Kurosaki Ichigo was." He turned his eyes up to look at Ichigo, falling silent.

Ichigo couldn't help himself. "What else?" he asked.

Hisagi continued to watch the boy for a few moments, as if contemplating continuing or not. "He had a good amount of fear in him," he finally said.

The carrot-top raised an eyebrow. "How is fear good?"

"A man without fear doesn't belong on the battle field," the vise-captain muttered. "If you're not afraid for something, then you have no good reason to fight."

//I take it back,\\ the hollow muttered. //He's an idiot.\\

"But..." Ichigo started, trying to put his thoughts into words. "I was told that fear isn't good, especially in battles."

Hisagi set his drink down on the wooden table and looked hard at Ichigo. "Humans have fear. Souls have fear. It's apart of them. Anyone saying otherwise is either in denial or selling something." He paused, as if waiting for Ichigo to interrupt. When he didn't, the vice captain went on. "Look, kid, bravery isn't the absence of fear. If there is no fear, there's no way to grow stronger because there is nothing to overcome. Bravery is the judgment that something else is more important than that fear.

"As long as you can always acknowledge that fear, you will always be able to grow stronger. You will always have a chance to win. Besides," he picked up his drinking cup again, "if you forget what fear feels like, how will you know bravery or triumph? You have to know one to know the other."

The hollow bristled. //He's wrong! Fear causes hesitation. The more one hesitates, the easier it is to get killed.\\

Ichigo stared at Hisagi for a moment while he listened to both his former vice captain and his inner hollow and their opposing views. Both of them had brought up valid points, and he found himself at a loss as to which he should believe.

"However," Hisagi finally went on, "you shouldn't be afraid."

Ichigo's face screwed up into his confused expression again. "Huh?"

Hisagi grinned, his eyes unfocussed like he was smiling half to himself and half to them. "Captain Tousen always told me I needed to have fear on a battlefield. But I had to learn how do that _and_ not be afraid for myself." He chuckled softly, a sad smile crossing his lips. "That's something Captain Tousen forgot."

Ichigo watched him curiously. "How did you do that?"

"You ask too many questions, kid," Hisagi muttered, sitting back.

"But Oth—er...someone told me not to be afraid too. How can you have fear but not be afraid?"

"What is fear, kid?" the man suddenly turned a fierce look onto Ichigo, who blinked at the sudden change in demeanor.

"Uh, being really...uh," he stumbled over the words, and changed his thought direction, "not...liking it when something could happen?"

Hisagi shook his head. "Don't know who told you that crap."

Ichigo's hollow huffed. //Yeah, who did?\\ he asked. //That's a stupid answer.\\ Ichigo refrained from muttering under his breath. Coming up with things off the top of his head was a method had seemed to work up until this point.

"Instinct," Hisagi finally muttered. For some reason, Ichigo felt Other Me was taken aback, and the hollow remained stunned for several seconds.

"Fear is an instinct?" Ichigo asked.

Hisagi shrugged. "Instinct and intelligence clash. One will rule the other. Sometimes instinct will save you. Sometimes Intelligence will. If you lean and rely too heavily on or the other, you'll lose the ability to use the other."

Hanatarou looked like he'd been listening intently suddenly opened his mouth. "Like playing a game," he said quietly. Both of the others looked over at him like he'd suddenly sprouted a plant on his head. "In shougi, you have to know all of your pieces and how they move. If you don't, you'll be weak in an area the opponent can exploit."

Hisagi raised an eyebrow. "You play shougi?"

The medic rubbed the back of his head, smiling nervously. "S-sometimes," he said.

"I see," Hisagi muttered, looking like he'd just seen the dark-haired young man in a new light.

Ichigo looked over at the tattooed man. "But there are other instincts besides fear."

The vice captain now turned his impressed look on Ichigo. "All of those instincts can be seen in the same way as 'fear'. Without instinct, we can't survive. Without intelligence, we can't live. It's a combination of the two that will get you the furthest in life."

//He still hasn't answered your other question,\\ Other Me said, his voice sounding sour.

"Yeah," Ichigo agreed, forgetting the other two couldn't hear his inner hollow. "How can you be afraid and not have fear?"

Hisagi shrugged, scooting his chair back. "That's something you're going to have to find out for yourself because," he glanced out the window, "you're time's up, Kid. Excuse me," he inclined his head politely and walked away, leaving Ichigo and Hanatarou to finish their meals.

"He's weird," Ichigo muttered, finding himself annoyed.

"You shouldn't say things like that, Ichigo-san," Hanatarou scolded.

For once, Ichigo ignored him.

xXx

"But Rukia-taichou, do we _have_ to?" Ichigo whined as they traipsed through Karakura town towards Urahara's shop.

Rukia smiled. The thought of him not wanting to talk to or see the Visored again relieved her to some extent. "Yes, Ichigo," she answered him. "I made a promise, and I'm not about to break it." She raised an eyebrow at him, "Will you?"

The boy folded his arms in a pout. "No," he said, but he didn't sound too enthusiastic.

"Look," the captain stopped and bent down a little, "it's only for a few days. After that, we'll be going back to the Soul Society, okay?"

Ichigo didn't look too pleased, or convinced, but he nodded anyway. "Okay."

They made good time to the store, and were greeted by a pretty young woman with dark hair. "Welcome," she said quietly with a bow. "Please follow me."

Rukia-taichou sighed for some reason, but moved to follow the girl inside, stepping on the creaking wood. No sooner had Ichigo cleared the doorway when something rather familiar came flying towards him.

"IIIIIICHIIIIIGOOOOO!" Ichigo blinked and stepped out of the way easily, watching the man from his first visit to Earth go flying by...right through the door Ichigo had just closed behind him with a crash of shattered wood.

"Isshin-san, now you're going to have to pay for my door repairs," Urahara appeared through the door in the back of the room, fan in front of his face, and eyes smiling. Outside, the man lay in a twitching heap on the ground.

"Yet again..." he grunted, "you have...proven yourself...worthy to be...called my son!"

Rukia glanced over at Urahara, who was pushing the rather distressed, but subservient girl through the back door, then back at the shattered door.

"What brings him here?" she asked as the shopkeeper turned with a smile and came walking up behind her, watching Isshin stumble shakily back through the opening.

Urahara followed her gaze, his eyes never losing their "smiling" quality. "He has come with a request, but let's go back into the tea room, shall we?"

The shopkeeper led the procession into the back rooms. After a minute, he opened a door showing several cushions set up around a circular table. One of the girls who had called herself Icigo's sister sat there looking annoyed. She shot her father a glare as the group filed in.

Once they had all seated themselves, Isshin came forward with his request. Pounding his hands on the table, he watched the group with an overly-determined expression. Rukia-taichou was not impressed. Neither was Ichigo.

"I come to ask to take my son back with me for a short while! Two weeks is all I ask for!" the older Kurosaki begged as he leaned across the table towards the captain. Ichigo could practically see the fake tears running down his cheeks in rivulets, and found himself puzzled when he felt vaguely annoyed by it. His actions seemed so familiar...

From beside him, the girl who claimed to be his sister (Karin?) smacked her father's head. He yelped loudly, but did not back down, continuing to try (and fail miserably) look noble. Rukia-taichou looked slightly out of her element and glanced uncertainly over at Urahara, who just shrugged.

"You want to take Ichigo for two weeks?" she restated his previously asked question. "Why?"

At this, the bearded man calmed down again. "It's June," was all he said. That too sparked something in Ichigo's mind, something that he couldn't quite place...

Rukia-taichou's face suddenly relaxed in understanding. "I see," she said, glancing over at Ichigo, who saw it out of the corner of his eye, too caught up in trying to remember that elusive thought running around at the edge of his consciousness. "Then I don't see why not," she continued, shaking Ichigo from his inner chase and causing him to look up at her. "If he wants to, he can," she shot a look at Hirako Shinji, who was leaning against the frame of the door. "And if it's okay with everyone else."

Hirako shrugged. "Why are you lookin' at me?" he asked.

Rukia didn't respond, instead turning to stare stately across the table at Urahara, looking every inch the Kuchiki noble she was.

"Ichigo!" Isshin stood up and flung his arms out, "come with Daddy!" He dived across the table towards his son. Ichigo, jumped over him, stepped on his head, and then landed where the older man had previously sat.

"And...he proves it again," Isshin muttered from the ground, completely ignoring Ichigo's apparent annoyance.

"What's June got to do with it? Why do I have to go with him?" Ichigo said with a scowl.

Immediately, the older Kurosaki had levered himself up on his arms to gaze with a sorrowful, worried and obviously over-the-top expression. "What?! My son doesn't want to come with me?!"

"Ichigo," Karin spoke up quietly. "I know you don't remember...and I know you may not want to remember, but it would mean a lot to all of us if you came." She looked at him, eyes pleading. He hated that look.

_Flash_

"_Ichi..." Ichigo stopped running after the large figure, the quiet voice from behind him piercing his heart. He knew that voice. Jerking his head over, he saw Karin standing there, leaning heavily on a nearby lamp post. He'd never seen her in that much pain. She'd always been able to hide her expressions behind a cold mask. Now her eyes practically begged him to do something. Exactly what, he didn't know._

"_Karin!?" he asked. "What happened to you? You're barely able to stand!" She didn't respond, and he saw what was coming next. Immediately, he turned towards her, just as her knees gave out and she pitched forward to the Earth.._

_Flash_

Frowning even more, he looked away from those eyes. "Fine, I'll go," he muttered.

"That's my son!" Isshin jumped up, arms extended to embrace Ichigo in a hug. Ichigo just put his fist up, causing the older man to run face first into it.

"You're too good, Ichigo," he said from around the fist, his nose beginning to bleed a little. "We can leave immediately--"

"No you don't," Hirako spoke up again. "He has two days of training with me. It's a pain to schedule and come all the way over here, so he can't just cancel."

Karin glared up at the Visored for several seconds before shrugging and standing up. "Fine," she said. "We'll be back in two days."

"NOOOO!" Isshin cried, "I want my little boy to come home now!" He leapt towards Ichigo again, this time only to be caught by Karin by his ear mid-leap.

"Thank you for having us," she said politely, bowing (consequently forcing her yelping father to do so as well). "Come on, old man," she muttered.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! No...Karin! My daughter hates me!" Isshin cried as she dragged him away.

Ichigo stared after them as they disappeared around the corner. "They're weird," he stated.

Urahara nodded and Hirako snorted. "You have no idea, kid."


	10. Talk It Out

You guys have NO idea how many issues this chapter gave me and Daricio. Seriously. *twitch* So after more revamps than we care to count, I hope this turned out well.

* * *

"No!" Hirako growled out again, shoving his mask to the side. "You're still relying too much on your flash step. You'll never get faster if you can't fully combine it with a sonido." He put a hand to his forehead. "You used to be able to do this! You _came up_ with the technique!"

Ichigo scowled in frustration. If he concentrated, he could perform a sonido just fine, and flash steps came pretty naturally to him, but he couldn't seem to combine the two for the life of him. He'd managed to get a few good combinations in, but those tended to come randomly as the result of pure, dumb luck.

Hirako had insisted that it had to do with his lack of control over his immense innate power and had even suggested starting to teach him kido just so that he could learn that control. He and Rukia-taichou had argued for almost an hour over that one. The captain insisted that Ichigo was too young while Hirako accused her of coddling him. He'd argued that Ichigo had gone through personalized lessons before, so doing so now should help restore memories.

Needless to say, that hadn't gone over very well. Apparently when it had come to kido, the older Ichigo hadn't done very well with it. He had taken remedial courses from various shinigami who had felt he needed to learn the techniques, but those lessons had been far and in between; apparently, not too many liked being blown up for some strange reason.

At one point Rukia had told him that even Renji had often laughed at the older Ichigo's efforts and actually had been _justified_ doing so, which apparently meant that Ichigo mixed with kidou like oil with water. And that was _before _he lost his memories.

Eventually they came to the consensus that Ichigo could train here with the Visored only in the techniques that he really couldn't receive instruction on from anyone in the Soul Society. Rukia had told Ichigo that he would receive kidou instruction from Hinamori-fuku-taichou later.

Ichigo had quickly discovered (or perhaps rediscovered) that the techniques for using shunpo and sonido were _just_ similar enough that it was difficult to concentrate on doing both at the same time. He always seemed to overshoot one way or the other, performing _just_ the sonido or _just_ the shunpo, and after six or seven hours of straight training, his legs felt like they would fall off. Every time he collapsed, he found it harder and harder to stand back up.

Finally, Hirako noticed, sighed and walked over to the orange-haired boy. "Hey, I'm thirsty," he said, nonchalantly. "Gonna go get something to drink."

Ichigo gasped, breathing hard, but used Zangetsu to lever himself back to a standing position. "Fine," he said in the high-pitched voice that came with the mask. "I'll keep practicing."

Hirako shook his head and walked away, muttering under his breath about idiots. As soon as he vanished through the trap door above the ladder, Rukia appeared next to Ichigo, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you rest?" she asked in a soothing voice. She wasn't exactly hiding the fact that she didn't like Ichigo around any of the Visored for some reason, and had insisted on staying to watch.

"No," Ichigo shook his head vehemently. "I've got to get this!"

Ruika blinked, rather surprised with his response. "Why?" she asked. "There's no hurry."

Ichigo set his jaw, unsure if he should answer her. The man who had appeared in his room had said that he'd been targeted by someone incomprehensibly strong. He couldn't begin imagine very many people stronger than the Visored, but the person targeting him was supposed to be able to put them all to shame. Ichigo could barely hold his own against the Visored, which meant he had to get much stronger before he could even begin to ensure his life and the lives of those around him.

"Ichigo?" Rukia asked again, sounding more worried.

"I'm fine," Ichigo insisted and focused on drawing his spiritual energy in to try the sonido/shunpo combo again. . He was just about to leap forward when he felt a familiar riatsu come up behind him, and then something sharp at the back of his neck.

"Ow!" he yelped, spinning around. "Hey! What..." he paused as the world began to spin and blur around him. He just saw a flash of green and white before everything faded to black. "Hat n' Clogs?" he muttered as he lost consciousness.

xXx

"How long has it been since he called me that?" Urahara laughed as he caught Ichigo in his arms.

"What was that for?" Rukia asked, feeling herself bristle up.

"No need to be a mother-hen here," Urahara waved his fan at her with a smile. "It will only knock him out for an hour at most. Shinji told me he was working himself practically to death down here, and asked me to do something about it."

Rukia huffed. Mother-hen? "You didn't have to go so far," she shot.

"Would talking to him have helped?" the man asked bemusedly.

The captain didn't answer, instead choosing to scowl as she snatched the sleeping boy away from the man and walked away with him in her arms.

xXx

"Ichigo, you're an idiot."

Ichigo looked up at his white reflection sitting across from him on the building. "What did I do this time, Other Me?" he asked with a frown.

"Pushing yourself 'til you drop is only something you should do in a serious battle."

The orange-haired boy shook his head. "But if I don't get stronger, what will happen when that Unmaker guy comes to kill us?"

The hollow shrugged. "Dunno, but there's no way you can get stronger by pushin' yourself 'til you kill us."

"Isn't that how you get stronger?" Ichigo muttered.

The hollow scoffed. "Only if I can live through the process."

Ichigo didn't look too happy, but he nodded none the less. "I guess you have a point," he muttered.

The hollow blinked. Even after two years of living inside the kid's head, Ichigo could still surprise him. If he'd been the older Ichigo, he wouldn't have ever conceded a point to _anyone, _let alone his inner hollow...

"You really are different," he muttered. It took him a moment to realize he'd said it out loud, and nearly kicked himself, preparing for some sort of comment from the other.

Sure enough, Ichigo scowled. "You don't have to rub it in."

The hollow mirrored the other's expression. "That was a compliment, brat. You don't want to be like him. You're better than that."

"I am?" Ichigo asked, brightening slightly. "Why?"

"You're so different from me," he responded automatically.

Ichigo blinked and cocked his head, looking a little awed. "So, you're like _him_?"

The smile on the hollow's face vanished and he looked away. "Don't compare me to that fool."

"Why do you hate him if you're like him?"

The hollow looked back at the other boy, glaring hard. He did not like where this conversation was heading. Why did the brat have to pick up on things like that? "When you look in a mirror you see things other people usually miss. You see your flaws, your weaknesses and all the things you wish you'd never had. Your reflection is always the worst part of you because it shows what you really are."

He glanced down at the window beneath his feet, seeing his own reflection in the glass, which didn't help his mood, but he couldn't seem to look away. "I hated him, because we used to be the same person. That means in his place, I would have done the exact same things."

"Because you were him?" Ichigo now sounded more confused than ever, which only seemed to tick his other self off more. The hollow leaped forward in a flash step. From the surprise on his face, the orange-haired boy hadn't expected to be suddenly flying backwards, straight into the building behind him. He cried out in pain when his body collided with the hard material, then sat there, stunned.

The hollow followed immediately behind him, whipping through the dust to drive the point home. "I said don't compare me to him," he whispered harshly in the other boy's ear.

"You didn't have to do that, Other Me," Ichigo managed to grind out. "Make up your mind! You just said you're like him!"

"Don't remind me," the hollow's eyes narrowed.

Ichigo rubbed the back of his head. "That hurt," he turned accusing eyes to his other self.

The smile reappeared on the hollow's face. "Good. You don't sound as scared anymore." Ichigo didn't answer, so his other self stood there in front of him, watching as he struggled to get up again.

"You know," the boy muttered, "if you don't want to be like me, maybe I should stop calling you 'Other Me'."

The hollow blinked in surprise, but after a few seconds he shrugged it off. "Whatever. I don't really care what you call me.""

Ichigo managed to pull himself out of the dent in the side of the building and dropped down to the one below ungracefully, wincing as he landed. He looked up to see the other boy standing nonchalantly in the air. "Okay, then you're Shiro."

"I know I'm white, idiot." And there was the eight-year-old coming back again. Seriously, the kid had no consistency whatsoever.

"No, I mean that's your name...if you want it."

The hollow looked unimpressed. "You want to call me something just because I look like I've been bleached?"

Ichigo looked away, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, you're right. It's stupid."

His other self cocked his head for a moment before he spoke. "It's still better than anything he'd come up with."

Ichigo blinked and looked up. "It is?" he asked.

The other rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it is. Fine, call me Shiro. Whatever."

The carrot top grinned back. "Alright, Shiro. And also..." he faded off and the hollow eyed him suspiciously. "I'll try to be a little more careful...about training."

Shiro turned around with a roll of his eyes, which almost hid the small smile that tugged at his lips as he walked away.

xXx

When Ichigo woke up, Hirako practically dragged him over into training again. He didn't know how long they went that time, but if he thought he'd been hurting before, it didn't begin to compare to now. But he wouldn't stop, he reminded himself. He couldn't. Not if he wanted to get stronger.

The hollow's words drifted to his mind at that thought. Okay, maybe he'd rest when they made him, but until then...

With his motivation renewed, he stood up and tried again.

They'd been working at it again for several hours when Urahara came over and insisted they stop for the night, probably on Rukia's request as she'd disappeared a few minutes before. Begrudgingly, Shinji agreed, dissipated his mask and turned to follow the green clad man. After a few steps, he realized Icihgo wasn't beside him and looked back, ready to rip into the kid for not resting properly. He stopped when he saw the small figure collapsed on the ground.

Training like that with hollow powers tended to do that to people. Shinji remembered all too well himself. Resigning himself with a roll of his eyes, he walked back over to Ichigo and reached out a hand.

"Is he alright, Shinji-kun?" Urahara called out to him

Shinji felt a vein throb on his forehead. "Since when did you call me that?"

Urahara shrugged with a grin.

"Psh," Shinji muttered. "Kid's out cold. Pushes himself too hard."

"Reminds me of someone I know."

"Eh, go away," Shinji shot over his shoulder. "I'll get him."

Urahara put on a mischievous grin. "Go away? You forget, I'm letting you stay here." Shinji very seriously considered taking a page out of Hyori's book and throwing something at him.

Instead, he lifted Ichigo up, and slid the boy's arm over his shoulder, ignoring Urahara completely. Not saying anything would bother him more than anything else. It took him a minute to settle the kid in the right place for a piggyback, but he eventually did before reaching down for the kid's giant sword.

"What's going on?" he heard a tired but upset voice from his shoulder. He looked to the side and saw an obviously exhausted Ichigo, who returned his gaze with a scowl.

"Good work today, Ichigo," Shinji smiled. Of course, it didn't turn completely genuine until Ichigo looked around as if expecting someone to jump out and yell "gotcha". Maybe Shinji had been a little too lax on his compliments.

He hadn't been a captain for nothing. He at leased _used_ to know how to motivate people, and he knew how things got done, even if he'd become a little rusty in those skills after all these years away from the Soul Society. Leaving Ichigo down here for the night wouldn't help him trust Shinji more, which meant he wouldn't get everything out of his training. It also meant that Shinji would have a harder time figuring out what was going on.

Still suspicious, Ichigo returned his glare to the older man. "I can walk just fine," he mumbled.

Shinji rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Yeah, you probably can." Despite his words, he reached down for the sword, grasping it by its hilt and stood back up again without putting Ichigo down.

The orange-haired boy's scowl deepened, making him look even more like his old self. "What happened?"

"It's the mask," Shinji responded, resolutely stalking towards the distant ladder at a normal human pace. "You pushed yourself to a point where the only thing keeping you upright was the energy from your hollow mask. It happens with bankai too, especially a bankai like yours."

"Oh," he replied, still looking unhappy at being carried. He shifted a little, causing Shinji to look back just in time to see the boy try to hide the wince of pain.

He shook his head and turned to watch the ground a in front of him. "I know it hurts, but it'll get better. Don't be afraid." Ichigo stiffened at those words, which puzzled Shinji.

"I wasn't," he said quietly. "Put me down. I can walk on my own."

The visored couldn't help but smile, yet he didn't stop to let the boy go again.

After several seconds of silence, Ichigo spoke up again, asking a question that threw the blond man completely off guard. "What's your hollow like?" he asked.

At that point, Shinji did stop, turning to look at Ichigo with a very puzzled and slightly worried expression. "Huh?"

Ichigo shrugged uncomfortably. "I was just curious."

"Oh," Shinji blinked and started walking again, mentally berating himself for letting his guard down like that. "I guess," he said slowly, wondering exactly where Ichigo was going with this, "just like any other hollow."

Ichigo cocked his head. "But aren't hollows like the people they used to be? So wouldn't they all be different?"

That caused Shinji to pause and think for a moment. Technically Ichigo had really answered his own question, but he also brought up a good point. Probably had something to do with his own inner hollow, so he was looking for specifics? The visored decided to humor him.

"Here," he held Ichigo's sword out for the boy to hold.

"Thanks," the boy muttered, swinging it onto his back (which half surprised Shinji both from the pained expression the kid wore and from the fact that he could swing that thing while riding piggy back without taking off heads). Meanwhile, Shinji reached up towards his face. Ichigo obviously felt the blond man's spiritual pressure change because he jerked to look back over Shinji's shoulder as older visored pulled his mask on.

"Here," he said in the high-pitched, multiple voice that always came with the mask. He then took it and handed it to Ichigo as well. "What does it look like?"

He could practically feel Ichigo's surprise as the boy held the other's mask in his hand, probably wondering what the visored was up to.

"Um...." Shinji glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw Ichigo studying the mask hard. "Mummies?" he finally said.

Shinji wondered how after all these years he could wince and laugh at the same time. "You think so?" Ichigo nodded. Shinji looked ahead again, stepping around a rather large rock in his path. "What kind of mummy?"

Ichigo began to study it again, but after several seconds, it became obvious that he wouldn't come up with anything. "Do you know exactly what a mummy is?" the former captain asked.

The boy shook his head. "I only saw one in a book shop this one time," he said. "The store owner was a nice man who would tell me stories about the different books. He asked me to join his family once."

"Really?" the visored looked back at the small boy. "Why did you refuse?"

Ichigo shrugged. "It didn't feel right."

Shinji regarded the eight-year-old for several seconds, filing that one away for later. "So he didn't tell you about mummies?"

Ichigo shook his head. "He said it was new and about other places and that he hadn't read it yet."

The visored conceded with a nod. He'd actually only learned about mummies after he'd made vice captain, and that was only because captains and vice captains sometimes had to deal with other societies. It would make sense that something like mummies from Egypt would be new in the Rukongai.

"Mummies are ancient people who had their bodies preserved when they died. They can be found thousands of years later if it's done right."

"Ew," Ichigo scrunched his nose. Shinji had to hide a laugh.

"They were usually very rich, noble people. Like kings," he continued.

"Why would they do that?"

The visored shrugged. "They believed that it would secure them a good place in the afterlife."

Ichigo looked down for a moment, then set his chin on Shinji's shoulder. "That's dumb."

Again, he had to stifle a laugh. "Yeah, a little. But they didn't think so. Those people saw the nobles and royals as rulers and sometimes Gods. They'd worship their kings."

"Why?" Ichigo asked.

"They were just taught that," Shinji found his patience waning. Thankfully, the ladder was almost directly ahead of him several yards. He rolled his eyes at himself. He had been the one to want to talk, after all. "So they all believed it, okay?"

Apparently, Ichigo heard the annoyance in his voice. "Oh, okay," he said with a slight huff.

"Anyway, that's what my hollow is like."

"A God?"

Shinji could not help but shudder at that one. "NO," he said, probably a little louder than he really meant. "It _thinks_ it is. It's haughty, heartless, cruel, annoying...the kind of person who would rule with an iron fist. It only looks out for itself, and doesn't care about anything but more power."

Ichigo frowned. "He sounds mean."

"_It's_ a hollow." Honestly, could the kid be any thicker? Then an extremely unpleasant thought occurred to Shinji. Did this kid actually trust his own hollow? The very idea struck him as utterly ludicrous, but it would explain a lot.

"So," he said as he reached up with one hand, dissolving the mask out of Ichigo's grasp. "What about you? What's your hollow like?"

Ichigo shrugged. "He's always telling me to not be afraid, and he likes to fight a lot. He says that instinct is what saves people in battle and that denying that instinct is only going to hurt me."

Shinji didn't say anything as he continued to climb the ladder, thankful for his several years of training for extra strength. Carrying someone on your back while climbing wasn't exactly easy.

He didn't like the tone Ichigo had described his hollow with, and the former captain _really_ didn't like how he agreed with a lot of what Ichigo's hollow had said.

"He's always calling me an idiot."

"Why do you still talk to it?" Shinji found himself asking. "You beat it, so you don't have to talk to it anymore if you don't want to."

Ichigo blinked, "Why--" then stopped, as if contemplating. Finally he started up again. "Why don't you talk to yours?"

"You heard how I described the thing. It's not worth talking to."

"Oh," Ichigo said. He looked like he wanted to say more, but didn't.

"So, you talk to it? You start the conversations, not it?" Shinji pressed. If the hollow had begun to initiate things, brainwashing wasn't out of the question. It also probably meant that something had gone wrong in Ichigo's inner battle before. They'd probably have to look into this, depending on the answer.

Ichigo didn't respond for several seconds, but finally spoke slowly. "No, but he only talks to me when I let him."

For some reason that didn't put Shinji to ease at all. Unfortunately, at that point they'd reached the trap door that lead into the shop above. Urahara was standing there with Rukia (who looked livid, and had probably been told about Ichigo collapsing).

"I see he's just fine now," the shopkeepr said in his too-happy tone.

"Yeah," Shinji muttered as Rukia lifted Ichigo off of his back. "Just fine."

xXx

"What do you mean, you destroy the world?" Rangiku shrieked. When they'd arrived back at the base, she'd noticed Gin acting a little more cautious around the representatives, and had pressed them both until they had broken down and explained. "Are you telling me we've been helping you set up for that?!"

Even Gin didn't look too pleased, standing with his back against a wall as Rangiku cornered the representatives.

"No!" two voices said at once.

"Then what's going on?!" The strawberry blond looked livid.

"It was my fault," the soul voice said softly. "I wanted something, and couldn't wait."

The woman's face reddened even more, practically ready to explode. "What did you want?"

"That would be difficult and pointless to explain," the fourth voice said calmly (which didn't help to calm Rangiku down at all).

She couldn't believe they'd been helping these guys! She couldn't decide whether she was angrier at herself for not asking the right questions before, or Gin for not spotting something like that like he normally did. Of course, knowing him he might be in on the whole thing.

"How could it be pointless?!" she shrieked.

The representatives turned their grayish head to look away from her. "We went insane."

She paused, trying to focus on his still twisting and turning features. "What?"

They looked over at Gin. "You saw, what we did. The explosion?" Gin didn't answer, but they took it as a yes anyway and continued. "That wasn't even half of our power. It was all we could control at this point."

Rangiku stepped back, blinking her wide, gray eyes incredulously. "You what?"

"With that in mind, imagine all of the power we can possibly use, being released on a constant basis. That is what happened."

"Why?" She shook her head, anger, worry and confusion all showing up in her otherwise smooth features.

"He told ya we went insane!" the hollow voice snapped.

Then his face calmed down, radiating sadness and embarrassment despite his still unsettled features. "I wanted something. More knowledge, so to speak," the soul voice said softly, for once not sounding young at all. "When I got it, I lost control. Didn't know what I was doing, or what was going on. I was fighting to live."

"Yeah," the human voice cut in with a muttered sigh and a scowl. "That was my fault."

"Anyway," the soul voice continued before Rangiku could say anything, "I didn't mean to release all of that energy at once, but I did. The others were fighting almost as much as I was, which only made it worse," his voice became more and more quiet as he went on. "We were in the middle of the soul society when it happened."

Rangiku winced and Gin looked away. "So you destroyed the Soul Society? On accident?" They nodded, and Rangiku suddenly felt slightly ill. She sat down at the table, not taking her eyes off of their body.

"What happened?"

They shifted, looking uncomfortable (it was amazing how well she and Gin could read their body language now). "That man we met came and threw us out of the time stream before we could damage anything else, but it was too late."

"How much?" the shinigami heard herself say quietly.

They didn't answer for several seconds, and when they did, it was the human representative who spoke. "We don't know for sure. We were thrown out of the time stream before we could see the extent of it, but we had...pretty solid proof that there wasn't much left, of either the Soul Society or Japan."

A pregnant silence fell over the room uncomfortably until Gin finally broke it, smiling as normally as ever. "You're here ta stop it, aren'tcha?"

Rangiku looked up at the sliver haired man, easily seeing his features in the dim lighting of the room. "Gin?"

"You came back in time ta stop it all from happenin'."

"Bingo," the hollow voice said, sounding utterly bored.

"Then you're--" the former shinigami started, but the fourth voice cut him off.

"We were. We are not any more."

Rangiku blinked, feeling like she was missing something. "What?" she asked.

"We used to be someone you know," the soul voice said. "Well, some of us," he added on as an after thought. "But we've changed."

The fourth voice took over again. "We have become each other. Four separate entities, but the same being. None of us can now survive without the others, and we influence each other far too much to truly ever return to who we used to be. Even me."

"How?" the shinigami asked, feeling horrified at their explanation for a reason she couldn't quite understand.

"Told ya," the hollow voice grumbled. "We got kicked outta time."

The fourth voice took over again. "We can't say for how long, because time does not exist in the void. Nothing can exist. We should not have been able to exist, but we did. For the equivalent of centuries, at our best guess. By the time we had regained enough of ourselves to realize this, it was too late."

They all stood there after that, Gin and Rangiku both trying to wrap their mind around this information. It seemed to Rangiku that no matter how much she thought about it, it didn't get any easier to understand. From what she could see of the Representatives, it never would. No one said anything for several minutes.

After what seemed like forever, Gin moved, heading towards the door.

"Gin, where are you going?" Rangiku asked.

The former shinigami paused at the door, glancing over his shoulder at her. "T' call an old friend," was all he said before he disappeared into the other room.

Rangiku stared at the empty doorway for several moments, her eyebrows knit together in thought. Vaguely, she wondered aloud, "He has friends?"


	11. Memories of the Rain

As soon as Ichigo saw the house, he knew it. He didn't know why, nor could he specifically remember it, but like he'd met an old friend after a long absence, he knew this house.

"Well, this is it! Home sweet home!" Isshin (it just felt weird for Ichigo to call him 'father') grinned and threw his hands in the air, subsequently ramming them into the car roof and yelping in pain.

Beside him in the front seat, Karin-san sighed. "I hope Kouhei gets here soon," she muttered loudly.

"You want your boyfriend more than your father?!" Isshin-san cried out, those fake tears running down his face again as he put on a hurt expression.

"Any day," she said as she got out of the car.

Ichigo couldn't figure out why at the mention of a "boyfriend" he bristled. The thought "no one is good enough for her" also came to mind. He tried to shake it off, with little success.

"Welcome home Ichigo!" Isshin-san yelled, striking a rather dramatic pose that made him look ridiculous as he slid open the door. Hesitantly, Ichigo stepped inside, leaving his shoes below the step up into the main area of the house.

_Flash_

"_I'm home."_

_He came out of nowhere, smashing Ichigo in the face with his foot. "YOU'RE LATE!" He fell on the floor, stunned for a few moments while his father ranted on in the background. "Do you know what time it is, you delinquent son?! You know dinner is every night at seven!"_

_Ichigo shot up, looking the man directly in the face. "Is that how you treat your son who just helped a soul pass on?!"_

_Flash_

Ichigo shook his head and moved into the house.

"I don't like this body thing," he muttered for the hundredth time. He couldn't use any of his powers or call out Zangetsu when he was in the little gigai Urahara had apparently created for him.

"Sorry, Ichigo," Karin grinned, ruffling his hair. "But it's a must."

"Why?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "People would think it was weird if we talked to blank space."

"Oh. So they can't see me like you can?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

Suddenly Isshin stepped in, stars in his eyes. "My son has finally gained the fascination with life I always hoped he would! Continue to ask questions, my boy!" Karin, looking just as annoyed than Ichigo felt, smacked the man over the top of the head, causing him to wail.

//Why do I have to put up with this?\\ he silently pleaded.

//'Cause I'm not gonna,\\ Shiro muttered. Ichigo couldn't feel Zangetsu anywhere on the surface. Probably ran and hid in the corner of his mind somewhere to escape the idiocy.

"Dad? Karin?" the other girl (Yuzu?) came around the corner, wearing an apron and holding cooking utensils. Her shoulder-length, light-brown hair had been tied back with a handkerchief.

"Ichi-nii!" she squeed with pure delight and rushed forward to embrace Ichigo (who couldn't shunpo away because of the gig—thing). "Welcome home!"

Karin stood up, ignoring her father. "Where's Kukai?" she asked Yuzu.

"Oh," Yuzu stood up (not letting go of a struggling Ichigo who suddenly felt like a helpless cat caught by a three-year-old). "He's not coming this year."

"Your own fiance?" Karin frowned.

"Has your father chased him away?" Isshin asked hopefully.

"Dad," Yuzu pouted, finally putting Ichigo down. He made a break for Karin and hid behind her slightly, now suddenly aware of why Kon seemed so scared of this girl.

Karin sighed and shook her head, taking off the light jacket she had on and hanging it up by the door with the base-ball cap she wore over her pony-tail and quickly brushed her fingers over her dark hair. "Stop it, Dad," she said flatly.

"I..." Yuzu started looking slightly ashamed of herself. "I asked him not to come."

Her twin blinked wide eyes at her. "What? Why?"

"Because of Ichigo, mostly," she said with a forced shrug that Ichigo didn't think suited Yuzu at all. He couldn't' remember much of her, but it just felt out of character. "I know we had a story all ready, but...it just didn't feel right, lying to him."

Karin shrugged and turned to walk into the house. "Who cares? If they love you, they'll understand. Kouhei does."

"But Karin..." Yuzu started after her sister, looking like a stern mother. For some reason, this all felt remarkably familiar. For just a moment, he saw everything from a different perspective. He saw the hallway from a higher altitude (a few feet) while he watched his two small, younger sisters wander further into the house with the exact same inflections in their voices.

Suddenly, he felt an arm around his shoulder, squeezing him. "Now, son," Isshin said all too close to his ear. "How about I show you the clinic?!"

xXx

Ichigo couldn't figure it out. Why did certain rooms in the house cause flashbacks, while others wouldn't start a thing? Sometimes it took several moments to get them to stop bombarding him, while at other times vague thoughts would tease his memory (he hated those the most). There didn't seem to be any consistency either. The only room he correctly predicted memory triggers from was his own room, and those flashbacks had come almost simultaneously.

He remembered being there as a child, vaguely, but mostly remembered Rukia-taichou sleeping in his closet, although he couldn't seem to remember the reason. Why anyone would want to sleep in that cramped, dark space was beyond him. He also remembered a few times when one of his sisters walked in and talked to him, or when his father jumped in and tried to fight him.

As the tour continued on, the only other thing besides the unclear flashbacks that he really found annoying, was the fact that Isshin would randomly burst out into strange poses or turn and try to smack Ichigo, "trying to keep him on his toes" as the old man claimed. So when Yuzu finally called for dinner, the carrot-top couldn't help but feel relieved.

After a well prepared, if awkward, meal with just the four of them, Ichigo settled down in his room (on Isshin's insistence) for a good night sleep. He'd laid there for several minutes while looking up at the ceiling with droopy eyelids before the flashbacks really started to come.

In some, he sat at the desk to the side of his bed, studying. In others, he'd simply open the door and walk in, usually wearing something different in each flashback, the outfits ranging in formality from a gray uniform to just a towel around his waist. In most of them, though, he would either sit on the chair in front of the desk, or lay on the bed and stare at the ceiling...just like he was doing now.

It took him quite a while to get to sleep that night.

The next morning, Isshin woke him bright and early with a smash to the face, the first hit he'd actually been able to get in that little Ichigo could actually remember. The man paid dearly for it, and Ichigo didn't even have to leave his gigai to do it. He did wonder vaguely how someone could bend that far without breaking and who would fix a wall with a hole that big.

Of course, that led to his father (after the man had miraculously recovered) showing him how to fix said hole and then making him finish, either complimenting or warning Ichigo randomly the entire time. It took a while, but Ichigo finally learned to tune him out.

Ichigo didn't get to meet Karin's boyfriend until the third day of his stay. Thin, lean and tall, Kouhei managed to look both athletic and nerdy at the same time. Still, he had a friendly smile, and greeted Ichigo (a cousin on their mother's side as the girls explained hurriedly) kindly. Despite himself, Ichigo found that he liked this man a great deal...although he couldn't help but frown whenever he saw him near Karin.

That day Karin took Ichigo and Kouhei out to show them around her home town. At first they walked through a few stores at a local mall, but after boredom caught up with all three of them, they ended up at a local park playing soccer for most of the day. Ichigo hadn't remembered the last time he'd had that much fun, even if Karin handed both of their behinds to them single-handedly. Still, as the day wore on, Ichigo found himself becoming more involved, and eventually got to a point where he could give her a run for her money while Kouhei commented on how accurate Ichigo's shot was, especially for his age. He also noticed the carrot-top's endurance and concentration.

By the time they left the park, the taller man was trying to convince Karin to let him get Ichigo in somewhere as a child prodigy...with little success. The girl would only shake her head and mutter something about how she hadn't ever guessed that Kouhei would be good with kids.

The day after that was pretty uneventful, except for Ichigo's training with a large stick in his small back yard, and their meeting for planning on who would carry what the next day. Ichigo ended up with the picnic basket and an umbrella. He felt a little excited that they would all be going on an outing, although he'd never admit it, and after glaring at Karin and Kouhei as they excused themselves to take a walk (much to their father's chagrin and poorly hidden tears), he actually slept better than he had since he'd arrived.

Surprisingly welcome, it was Yuzu who woke him up the next day instead of Isshin. She smiled brightly as she instructed Ichigo to get dressed and meet them downstairs, but her expression and attitude felt forced. Ichigo sensed it immediately, even in his partially awake state, and it set his nerves on edge while casting a cloud over the excitement he'd felt only yesterday.

It didn't take him long to get ready, but he was still the last one to arrive at the bottom of the stairs. As soon as his foot touched the wooden floor, Isshin thrust a basket and umbrella at him, grinning madly from ear to ear. It did nothing to ease Ichigo's wariness, as it too felt more forced than usual. Karin held a blanket and her usual non-caring scowl, but she wouldn't meet Ichigo's eyes. The only person that seemed genuine that morning was Kouhei, who looked somber, serious and more quiet than Ichigo had seen him.

Isshin ushered them outside and into the car, locking the door behind him and exclaiming about the picnic. It was under those conditions that they drove for the next hour and a half through morning traffic. Ichigo sat in the middle, staring straight ahead with a scowl on his face (for some reason, that expression felt right). This didn't add up. Why were they going on a picnic that early in the day? And why were they driving for so long? They passed parks and other nice, grassy areas that would have served just fine several times. Besides, wouldn't it be better for them to go another day? There were an awful lot of clouds in the sky...

He couldn't figure it out. The silence from the other two in his head didn't help. Shiro hadn't talked much to him since he protested going to be with the family at all, and Zangetsu didn't talk much or often anyways. So he sat in silence, feeling more and more on edge as they neared their destination. He also felt a strange sense of growing dread that he continuously tried to squelch.

The sun could barely be seen behind all of the cloud cover in the sky. It was easily mid-morning by the time they parked and began walking up a steep hill. They'd almost reached the top when Ichigo had about three simultaneous flashbacks, two of them with him running beside or carrying his sisters up the hill, and one of them with Rukia-taichou in a dress and hat waving at him. It didn't last for more than a few seconds though, so he filed those away in his head for later and quickly caught up with the others.

It wasn't until he saw the entrance and memorial stones on the other side that he really stopped. "We're going to have a picnic in a graveyard?!" he asked suddenly. Everyone paused, looking at each other hesitantly before turning their eyes back at him.

"You mean, you didn't know?" Karin asked. "I thought Dad told you."

Isshin looked hurt. "I thought Yuzu told him," he defended.

"I thought you were supposed to too, Dad," Yuzu accused.

"Oh," the old man ran a hand through his hair.

Karin rolled her eyes and walked back to Ichigo, squatting on the ground before him. "We're here to visit some people who were very dear to us."

"Who?" Ichigo asked. For the first time that he could remember since meeting the older girl, Karin looked to be at a loss for words. Instead of stuttering through something, she simply blinked at Ichigo seemingly unable to do much more than that. Kouhei noticed and jumped to her rescue.

"You're probably too young to know the person who you're named after," he said deliberately, looking a little unsure himself, but he continued. "Your older cousin Ichigo has a memorial stone here, and so does Karin's mother."

It was Ichigo's turn to blink. He had a memorial stone here? This he had to see. For some reason, his mind skipped over the last part of Kouhei's sentence.

"Oh," he said, turning to walk into the well manicured area. "Okay, then let's go." He didn't see the incredulous stares from the four behind him.

Once inside, they lead the way. The uneasy knot in his stomach began to come back as they passed more and more memorial stones. He began to find anywhere else to look, noticing the well taken care of lawns and trees. Birds sang softly, as if in a happy reverence and insects continuously flew by them.

"Here we are," Isshin said finally. "Ichigo's Memorial stone! Now we can play Gravestone Dominos!"

"Will you stop saying that every year?!" Karin shot at him.

"Cool," Ichigo said as he studied the memorial intently. The large, off-white stone had his name carved on it, as well as dates above a small offering area. He hadn't know that was his birthday. It didn't look much different than most of the other stones on the row, but it was his. He found it both interesting and disturbing.

Kouhei looked uncomfortably at the boy. "Did he just say 'cool'?" he asked Karin.

She had a hand to her head as she slowly shook it back and forth.

"Why don't we light incense for him on the way back," she suggested hurriedly. Yuzu looked a little unsure, but Ichigo just nodded and stood, looking to Karin to lead the way. It was about time they got to the picnic anyway. Isshin shot his daughter a thumbs up, and turned to lead the way, yelling loudly.

"Is your family always like this?" Ichigo heard Kouhei whisper to Karin, and couldn't help but snicker. How else was he supposed to act towards his own grave marker. How many people got to see it after the fact anyway?

Of course, that just reminded him, yet again, of what he wasn't now, which sobered him rather quickly. He heard Shiro snort in his head, but ignored him and continued following the others.

The sense of unease that had all but vanished when he'd seen his own gravestone returned with a vengeance as he followed Karin, although he couldn't for the life of him figure out why. He felt like he was missing something...and he wasn't sure that was a bad thing. It felt like his mind _wanted _to shy away from, ignore or pretend that whatever it was had never happened.

But that was just it. Like _what_ had never happened?

His train of thought kept running in mad circles, driving him crazy. By the time they stopped, his frustration had risen to a level where he wanted to ditch the gig-thing and seek out something to take his feelings out on. He was half tempted to jump into his own mind and insist that Shiro fight him.

"_Now_ can we play dominoes? Or tag?" Ichigo heard his father ask, half surprised that he'd actually thought of Isshin as his father. He'd turned his back to them, gazing around. Despite the fact that just about every row in the cemetery looked almost exactly the same, this row...it _felt_ familiar.

"Don't ignore your father!" Isshin whined.

"Ichigo," he heard Yuzu's soft voice and looked up to see her standing beside him, a worried expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

"Mmm," he nodded, forcing a smile on his face. Yuzu just looked more worried. He turned to Karin for support, but his eyes slid past both her and Kouhei to the memorial stone they knelt in front of.

The world around him suddenly didn't seem to exist, fading out of his view in a haze of blurred color. Slowly, he walked toward the stone, involuntarily reading the name on it. Kurosaki Masaki. Suddenly, memories of having been at this memorial stone before began to trickle into his mind. Who was she? And why did he suddenly feel so guilty and sad? Not really knowing why, he reached a hand out to touch it, as if to make sure it was real.

"Who was she?" he voiced his thoughts a loud, wondering why his voice had begun to shake.

Everyone seemed to freeze, hesitating to answer his question. Slowly, he turned to look at them. No one met his eyes.

Finally, Yuzu spoke up. "She was our mother. She died when we were small."

Somehow, the guilt seemed to increase. "How?" he asked.

Karin stepped forward. "This is a bad idea," she said firmly, guilt plain on her face as well. "We should go."

Ichigo's other hand reached up and clutched the shirt in front of his chest. Just as his fingers were about to touch the memorial stone, something fell gently on his shoulder, holding him back slightly.

"Come on, Ichigo," Karin said softly. Immediately his heart jumped and he jerked away from her touch.

"No! What happened to her?" Again, no one responded. It took all the will inside of him to tear his gaze from the stone to look back at them, his eyes pleading and desperate. "Tell me!"

Karin glanced worriedly at Kouhei before reaching out for the little boy's hand again. "Ichigo, come with me, I'll explain it later..."

Hesitantly he turned around and looked back at the stone that he'd almost backed into. "Why...?" he asked. Something danced at the edge of his memory again, darting about just quickly enough he couldn't seem to consciously bring it to mind. Part of him even seemed to reject it...and he had no idea why. He felt Karin's hand close around his just as he reached out and brushed the weather-worn surface.

_Drip. _He felt the moisture on his hand, and couldn't help but look at it. A rain-drop? Why did it always rain on...?

His eyes widened, and at that moment, he no longer stood in a graveyard. The flashbacks came again and again, so rapidly he could hardly make them out, each one of them searing themselves into his mind.

_Flash_

_It had been raining that day. And the day before that... and the day before that, as well... _

_Flash_

"_I'll walk on the roadside," a dry cloth began to scrub at his wet face._

_Ichigo shook his head vehemently, "No. I'm wearing the raincoat, so I'll be fine. I'll protect you..."  
_

_Flash _

_The girl standing in the rain by the river, swaying and unsteady. She was gonna jump! Ichigo didn't think, he acted. _

"_Wait here!"_

_Flash_

_A smiling face, never once mad or upset smiling down at him, surrounded by soft brown hair, slightly damp from the rain that had leaked in under the umbrella. He couldn't make out the features very well. Everything looked blurry._

"_Can we hold hands?" He looked up. "I'll protect you..."_

_Flash _

_The dark-haired girl fell forward. He heard a shriek behind him, one of worry and fear. He wanted to turn around, but he almost had the girl..._

_Flash _

"_Oh my," the smiling face again that he just didn't want to seem to focus on. _

_I'll protect you... _

_Flash_

_Feeling the weight on him prompted him to opened his eyes. He was lying on his back, trying to ignore the rain. The weight on him...he looked down. It hurt. _

_Immediately he felt his eyes widen. Blood stained the ground around him, and she was laying over him, protecting him from something. "No..." he muttered. His mouth moved again, but he couldn't seem to hear or say the word. _

_Somehow he struggled out from underneath her and shook her shoulder, shouting something over and over again. "Wake up!" he kept yelling._

_I'll protect you..._

_But he hadn't._

_Suddenly her face was all too clear._

_Flash_

"MOOOOOOOOOMM!" he yelled, screamed really. Sometime during those flashbacks, he'd felt his knees hit the hard pavement at the base of the stone, hands clenching his head as the memories pounded themselves into his brain.

He sensed someone kneel a little behind him. "Ichigo," he heard his father's voice say in a tone he'd never heard from the man before. "Ichigo, are you all right? What's wrong? What do you remember?" He felt a hand touch his shoulder but shrugged it off violently.

"NO!"

"Please," he heard Isshin say.

His mind wasn't working, and nothing seemed to make sense to him at the moment. He felt empty, and lost. He also felt the pain, so much greater than anything he'd ever experienced before, like someone was ripping out his heart over and over again. It didn't stop or fade.

He didn't understand. Why couldn't he grasp the situation? Why was this so important?

//I don't understand!\\ he screamed inside his mind. //HELP ME!\\

//Che,\\ Shiro muttered. //Why do we always have to come to the rescue?\\

The next thing Ichigo knew, he was back inside of the sideways world. He looked around for a minute, feeling nothing short of exhausted, but on edge and jumpy at the same time.

He felt the black fabric brush his cheek and slowly, shakily looked up to see the old man standing there stoically. The sword spirit said nothing, instead staring resolutely ahead.

"No one can see you cry here," the old man finally spoke. Ichigo continued to look up at him for several more seconds before the tears began to blur the colors again. Suddenly, Ichigo leaned forward, clutching onto the black material, and let the tears come probably for the first time in decades. Zangetsu did nothing to encourage or discourage the child's actions, realizing now more than ever this was a lost, scared little boy, and not the Kurosaki Ichigo he once had lent his power to.

xXx

Karin felt the change in the spiritual pressure and gasped as she watched her father back off immediately, looking unsure of himself. The little boy's body stilled, no longer shaking weakly.

She couldn't help but stare with a sort of morbid curiosity that seemed to take over the others as well. Her father was the first one to move, which jogged Karin out of her thoughts immediately. Before she knew it, her body had moved to intercept. Knowing their idiot father, he'd try to knock the poor kid's head against the stone a dozen or so times to "snap him out of it".

This was not the time for that. She grabbed her father's wrist, and shot a glare at him just as he was about to touch the orange-haired boy. He noted the expression on her face and sighed, backing off. Good, she thought to herself and nodded as she let go of his arm.

Then she took a calming breath herself and turned to the now silent figure still clinging to the stone. No one had thought he'd react like this. They should have known this of all things would bring back memories...especially memories that strong. Why had they been stupid or blind enough to not think this through a little more thoroughly? The poor kid probably didn't even know why this hurt him so much.

"Ichigo?" she said softly. He didn't respond. His riatsu still felt...strange, almost as if she sensed it through a thick layer of insulation. "Hey," she said, a little louder. Finally she gathered enough courage to lay a hand on his shoulder. As soon as she did so, a shudder ran through his small frame, almost as if she'd hit a switch of some sort. His muscles relaxed under her very touch, and his body started to collapse. Trying not to panic, the dark-haired girl leapt forward, catching him before he could hit the stone.

"Ichigo! Karin!" Kouhei also lurched towards his girlfriend, kneeling beside her and looking down worriedly at the little boy.

"Ichigo!" she yelled loudly, searching his now blank face for any sort of recognition. His eyes hadn't closed, but they stared up at her listlessly, almost as if no soul was there behind them to look out at her. "Hey! Ichigo!" she shook him slightly, "Answer me!"

"Ichi-nii!" Yuzu also yelled down at the boy. "What can we do?! Ichigo!"

"Karin! Let me see him!" Kouhei suggested.

She ignored them, making a mental note to apologize and make it up to them later.

She didn't know a lot about gigais, except for the fact that they were supposed to work similarly to real bodies. Silently berating herself for not thinking of it earlier, she reached over and checked for a pulse, nearly collapsing in relief herself when she felt a faint but steady beat beneath her fingers. She could also feel him breathing, now that she thought about it.

"He's fine," she said loudly. Upon hearing her, they all quieted down. "He's fine," she repeated, standing up. "He just passed out. I'll take him to Urahara to make sure."

"Is he a doctor?" Kouhei asked, looking more than a little confused.

"He's the best!" Her father shot her boyfriend a (rather lame looking) thumbs up. She sighed, but mentally thanked him for covering for her .

"Then I'll go, too."

"No," Karin shook her head. "I need you to take Yuzu and Dad home. The place I'm taking him is pretty small. There isn't a whole lot of waiting room, and if we all go we'll probably get in the way."

Kouhei looked torn as he glanced between the two sisters. Finally Karin motioned for him to come a little closer. "Please," she said. "I don't want Dad to make things worse on Yuzu right now."

He sighed, resigned and stood up. "Alright," he said. "You take the car, we'll catch the train back."

"Thank you," she said, unable to keep the grateful smile from showing on her face.

xXx

Not many beings could take Kuchiki Byakuya by surprise. He had trained long and hard so that his guard would never fall to a point where his mind could feel surprise. Kurosaki Ichigo and his three-day Bankai had broken the facade he'd held for years. He'd been able to maintain his composure since then for the most part, but as he stared at the man before him, he couldn't help but think that he would need more training. There was no excuse for this kind of genuine shock twice in 10 years.

Then again, he wasn't used to receiving royal guests. Nobles? Yes. Royals? The Noble families all claimed some royal blood, but an actual Royal Court visitor?

Fortunately for him, he could maintain composure through his surprise.

"If there is a problem concerning Kurosaki Ichigo," he said calmly, "why have you not come forward before?"

The royal messenger, a man in a colored robe over a shinigami outfit, didn't even bat an eye. "We were unaware of the severity of this situation."

Byakuya raised an eyebrow. The man had just admitted to some weakness; something a noble would never do. That either said something for the differences in the Royal court or the absolute seriousness of the problem. As in 'End of the world' serious.

"Very well," he said calmly. "What would you have us do?"


	12. More Faces

"We're almost home," Karin heard Yuzu say over the other end. She wasn't surprised it had taken them almost the full day to catch all the right buses back to Karakura Town. She did feel slightly guilty, but knew that having Kouhei at Urahara's Shop would only raise more questions. "How is he?"

Karin suppressed a sigh. "They've taken him out of his gigai and he's resting. Urahara-san says he should be fine physically."

"Just physically?" Dang. That would have worked ten years before.

"There's no way to really confirm his mental state," she softly repeated the words the shopkeeper had said to her not ten minutes before. "Not until he wakes up. We can't confirm what he remembers and if it came too fast or not."

She waited a few moments while Yuzu relayed the edited news to the men. When the line picked up again, it wasn't her sister on the other end.

"Are you okay, Karin?" Kouhei's deep voice came to her, and she coudln't help but relax a little. Why was it that any time he spoke to her she felt as if anything could happen, no matter how impossible?

"I'm fine, Kouhei," she clutched the phone a little tighter, wishing he were there for just a moment. "I miss you."

"Uh-oh, here's our stop," she heard his tired voice and wanted to kick herself for making him go through all of this just so they could keep their little secret. She suddenly realized why Yuzu had asked her own boyfriend to not come. Lying like this...it really wasn't worth it. "I'll see you tonight," he whispered loudly. She could barely hear it over the background noise, but she felt the emotion from it, and it gave her strength.

She nodded, despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "Alright. I love you."

"I love you too," he responded. Then, after a long, reluctant pause, the line went dead. She let out a breath as her phone snapped shut.

"Ah, young love," she heard a voice behind her and turned to see the all-too-familiar green and white hat accompanied by the usual fan.

Karin snorted, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. "You're worse than my dad."

He took a step back, holding a mock wound near his heart. "That hurt, Kurosaki-chan."

She couldn't stop a smile spreading across her face. "Good."

Urahara shook his head, opening his mouth for a come back when the door opposite of his slid open quickly and a frantic looking Ururu came running towards them.

"He woke up!" she said.

"Excellent," Urahara moved to walk into the room, but Ururur stopped him.

"He wouldn't say anything," she said. "And before I could do anything, he left!"

Karin felt her blood freeze in her veins. "Left?" she asked, grabbing the other girls arm. "What do you mean 'left'?!"

The dark-haired girl looked utterly distraught. "I'm so sorry," she said, bowing several times. "I tried to stop him, but he used shunpo...out of the window. I couldn't keep up." She looked up at Karin, eyes begging for forgiveness. "Please forgive me, Kurosaki-chan. He's gone."

xXx

Lost. That's how he felt. Completely and utterly lost. So far gone that he could not find a way back from the darkness he'd strayed into. He didn't really remember waking up, although he knew he'd had to because he did remember someone trying to talk to him vaguely.

He had no idea how long he'd walked around the city, except that it had been light when he'd left, and it had long since turned dark. His feet continued to move, wandering around on the grass and gravel. A while ago, he'd found a place that felt familiar and had stayed in the area. He didn't know where he was or why he'd come there. He was just simply there, pacing until he felt he didn't feel like pacing any more. Then he'd squat or sit down until he figured he should move again.

//Will you snap out of it? Baka!\\ Shiro yelled in Ichigo's head for about the hundredth time.

It took the boy several seconds to answer. When he finally did, it didn't sound like he was answering the question at all. //I'm sorry, Shiro,\\ he muttered. //I'm sorry I'm not strong enough.\\

And he wasn't. He wasn't strong enough to face the fear, to handle the pain, to protect anyone...

//Let him go,\\ Zangetsu spoke up. //He'll come when he's ready.\\

//Psh,\\ Shiro snuffed. //Maybe I'll change my mind and take over after all if he just keeps being stupid.\\ With disgust and a promise to knock Ichigo around if he didn't come out of it soon, the hollow retreated into the back of his mind.

Ichigo ignored the conversation, and continued to wander aimlessly.

xXx

Arisawa Tatsuki couldn't help but smile up at the rather gorgeous sunset as she stepped calmly on the pavement. She loved coming home. Yes, she still considered this part of Karakura Town home, despite the fact that she hadn't lived here for years. She loved seeing her father and the old house he'd thankfully never sold, even after her mother had passed on.

She had very few sad or painful memories from her childhood. Of course she'd had bad days like every normal human being, but for the most part she'd felt rather positive about her past, even with the ghosts and other-world wierdness during high-school, thanks to a certain orange-haired idiot.

Sighing, she gently tried (rather unsuccessfully ) to push her mind away from that train of thought. Between her and Orihime, they'd gone over and over every single possible explanation for his disappearance that they could come up with...and considering Orihime's still wild imagination (maybe he got kidnapped by aliens!), that said a lot.

It had taken her too long to really move on from her childhood friend's disappearance, but she had moved on after all. Orihime on the other hand...

She shook her head, still feeling more than a little responsible for her best friend. That's why she had refused another night at her parents house in favor of heading back to her current place of residence with Orihime as a roommate above the other girl's disturbingly successful cafe.

Still, that didn't mean she didn't have time to take a nice little walk around the old neighborhood. She'd dropped by the school, a few after school hang-outs, her favorite dojo, and the Kurosaki household only to find the note on the door stating that no one was there, which she practically smacked herself for. She should have remembered.

As far as she knew, everyone else she knew who had grown up there had moved away. Chad kept in touch with Orihime and consequently with Tatuski. Mizuiro still called her every now and then, usually when he'd broken up with his significant other, just to talk. Keigo, surprisingly, turned out to be very adept at falling off of the map when he wanted to, although he did tend to drop by and ask for a couch to crash on for a few nights every other month or so. That left Chiziru and a few of the other girls from their school days, but Tatsuki doubted she'd really find anything about them without some serious effort, which she did not have the time or patience for at the moment.

Truthfully, even with her recent breakup with her ex-boyfriend, Hiro, she felt content with her life now. Well, at least she didn't feel stuck in limbo like she had just after her mother had died only three years before, or when Ichigo had disappeared...

Even with those painful memories, she'd never stop coming back.

"Never realized I was so sentimental," she snickered to herself.

She still had a little while before she would reach the station, and after that it'd take a two-hour train ride straight north to her new "home town". That place would never really be home though. She didn't think she'd--

Her thought process cut off mid-thought as she caught sight of something she hadn't seen in almost 20 years. She knew this place; the grass, the river, the cement steps, and the bridge. There were few places more familiar to her, as she'd had to pass by here every day coming home from the dojo after elementary school.

Ichigo's mother had died here...and Tatsuki was officially going crazy.

Well, she'd _thought_ she'd been able to get over Ichigo's death, but the mirage she saw wandering around the bank of the river clearly stated otherwise...in bright, flashing, neon signs.

He looked _exactly_ like her nine-year-old friend just after he'd lost his mother. A nine-year-old friend who'd grown up to be a 26-year-old man. A 26-year-old man who had died two years earlier. What she saw before her at this moment was nothing short of impossible.

"Ichigo..." she whispered, transfixed and unable to tear her eyes away. She had no idea how long she stood there and watched the disturbing spectacle as the sun sank lower and lower on the horizon. Her eyes followed him until the darkness overtook his figure and she could barely see the outline.

"Excuse me," a voice by her hear caused her to jump and grab an arm, pinning the older gentleman who had spoken against the side of the bridge. "Hey!" he protested.

Tatsuki blinked down at him, a little startled. "Oh, sorry," she said, releasing him immediately. "Really, I'm sorry."

"Are you alright, miss?" he asked, rubbing his arm tenderly. Tatsuki looked around, realizing for the first time that it really had gotten late. If she wasn't back soon, Orihime would begin to panic, if she hadn't already.

"I—I...uh," she glanced back over her shoulder to the area, and gasped. The figure was still there.

"I saw you here over an hour ago, when I passed by here," the man persisted. "And you look like you've seen a ghost."

She almost snorted. His guess wasn't that far off. She blinked up at the older man, who continued to stare back worriedly, and a little warily.

Finally, she spoke up. "I—I was just remembering," she said sadly. "I must go. Please excuse me, and thank you." She bowed quickly. "I really am fine."

With that, she jotted back down the bridge, leaving the man to shake his head and mutter under his breath as he continued in the opposite direction. She took the stairs down towards the bank two or three at a time, slightly surprised that she knew her way in the dark even after all these years.

She slowed down as she approached the small figure, feeling both relieved and uneasy at the fact that her mind had not been playing tricks on her (unless it had decided to be particularly elaborate and tenacious enough to continue this sick joke).

"H-hello?" she spoke softly. The boy didn't stop or turn at her voice, so she cleared her throat and spoke louder. "Hello!"

He paused for several seconds before turning to slowly face her. Even in the dim light she had to bite back a gasp (and failed miserably). Even his face looked exactly like a nine-year-old Ichigo. Same hair color, same features, same listless expression...

"Miss...lady?" he said softly, as if questioning that she stood there. He didn't seem to recognize her. She nodded slowly, as if to confirm her existence to him. Then he seemed to lose the strength to look up and dropped his head. Her eyes followed the direction and landed on the hand pressed against his chest. "It hurts."

//It is!\\ she couldn't help but think. //It's Ichigo!\\ Immediately her mind broke into fast forward. She had to take him back to his family! But no, they weren't there, and probably wouldn't be until very late. So where would she take him? She should take him home. He'd spent the night a few times when they'd been in elementary school, and her father knew...oh, her father. No, she couldn't take him back there. How could she explain this? She still wasn't sure this wasn't all an illusion. Or a ghost. No, he didn't have a soul chain, so he couldn't be a ghost, so what...?

It took her several minutes to decide on a course of action, but Arisawa Tatsuki had never been an indecisive individual. Smiling, she gulped back her fear and confusion and leaned down, holding out her hand.

"Hey," she said as kindly as she could, "Are you Ichigo?"

A bit of confusion began to show through the painful stare. "How did you know?" he asked dully.

Her heart caught in her throat, and it took her several minutes to calm down. This had to be some sort of illusion or....something.

"You need to be going home soon. Where are your parents?"

He looked away. "I don't know," he said softly and went to step forward again. She caught his wrist carefully. He paused, looking back at her, the pain-filled stare back in place.

"Look, I know you're not supposed to go with strangers, but how about you come with me?" That would be her course of action. If he said no, she'd just call for a police officer to come and take him back to the station. They could locate his parents from there. If he did go with her, she'd take him to the police herself. Of course, that was all assuming this wasn't some sort of hallucination...

She felt his hand take hers and almost had to blink. It felt real, if a little cold.

"Alright," she said with a smile. "But after this, you should definitely never say yes to a stranger." She slowly lead him back onto the road and turned down towards the station, pulling out her cell phone at the same time. After all, she had no idea how long it would take to get this kid home. The least she could do was let Orihime know she'd be late.

Of course, she probably wouldn't have this problem if her friend didn't act like a mother hen...

xXx

"I never did like these things," the soul voice muttered as they made their way up the loading ramp. "Stupid gigais."

"Stop complaining," the human voice reprimanded, ignoring the strange looks the other passengers were giving him. "How else were we supposed to get to Japan?"

Their expression fell into a silent pout. Looking over, they spotted Gin and Matsumoto in the waiting area, watching them warily. Apparently he couldn't set foot in Japan again without causing some serious uproar, and Matsumoto's duty was to keep an eye on him.

For a moment, they contemplated the pair. Gin really had changed since they'd known him, and they suspected the straberry-blond had something to do with said change. He'd gone from being a dangerous traitor to actually useful and somewhat reliable. The ex-shinigami's phone call had fairly easily gotten them a gigai and a plain ticket to Japan within the week. They were on their way to Karakura town...finally.

Now it was only a matter of time before they could get into the Soul Society and hopefully the Seiretei. Kurosaki Ichigo was as good as theirs. They'd just have to drop by Urahara's shop first and then--

"So, what'll we do once we get to Japan?" the soul voice asked.

"Wait," the human voice spoke up, sounding confused. "You weren't thinking the same thing?" Since their time in the void where they had merged with each other, there had been two constants: First, they couldn't ever go, see or do anything without the others knowing, seeing and doing as well. Second, while their personalities had not been completely lost, their train of thought always followed the others'. They never thought one thought the others didn't, they only reacted to those thoughts as their personalities dictated.

"Thinking what?" the soul voice asked innocently, apparently not realizing that that shouldn't happen.

"About how it's only a matter of time before we can get to the soul society," the hollow voice said, sounding wary himself. "We're gonna drop by Urahara's shop."

"Oh," the soul voice shrugged their shoulders. "Okay."

They remained silent for several seconds as they found their seat and lowered the dark-haired gigai into it.

"Perhaps," the fourth voice said finally, "we are not as permanently integrated as we originally thought..."

"Well tell me you guys feel that," the hollow said, turning their head slightly. "That way."

"We're going to be heading that way soon, aren't we?" the soul said with a sigh.

The fourth voice spoke. "It seems our pursuer is waiting for us."

"This is gonna be fun," the hollow said, grinning from ear to ear as the plane engines started and the stewardesses began their routine pre-flight instruction.

"You're going to turn this whole thing into one big, deadly game aren't you?" the human muttered.

The hollow smiled again. "And he's 'it'."

* * *

Sorry this took so long, guys. Just the holidays and business and traveling...ugh. *sigh* However, I did enjoy Christmas. :D So consider this a New Year's gift.

For those of you reading my other stories, I'm hoping to update "Walk Two Lifetimes" soon and will definitely update my new Final Fantasy X fic (which I'm working on with a friend).

Please don't forget to review! Thanks.


	13. Old Faces, New problems

Note: Later on in the chapter, there are several comments about America. I would like to point out that I am American, and I'm proud of it. I love the idea America stands for, and am happy to be American. With that said, please read the later comments with that in mind.

Oh, and as a Disclaimer (haven't had one in a while), I don't own Bleach. Don't own anything associated with it (except for 4 shirts, 2 key chains and a porcelain mask.... .). As such, the following idea is not made in any way for profit. Thank you.

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me," Tatsuki tried not to gape at the policeman in front of her. She had waited for far too many minutes in her opinion before a police officer had approached and asked for her information. Now her stood watching her with an annoyed expression, as if her very presence there was wasting his time.

"You said you were here to report a found child," he repeated slowly. "So where is the child?"

Tatsuki blinked at the man several times before glancing down beside her. She hadn't let go of Ichigo's hand once. If he were anything like her Ichigo, he'd vanish the moment she did, so she'd refused to even contemplate losing contact with the boy at all. He hadn't complained, merely sitting silently by her side the whole time, completely oblivious to the world around them.

The police officer wasn't lying, though. Why would he? He really could not see the little, orange-haired boy who mechanically followed after her and now stood by her side. If he couldn't see him, that meant this Ichigo was a spirit.

//But he has no soul chain!\\ Her mind screamed at her. That meant he was from the Soul Society. There just wasn't any other explanation. But how could that be? He didn't look like a shinigami. He had on a brown, male kimono, not the black hakama pants and robe. He didn't have a sword. So what--

"Miss?"

"The bridge," Tatsuki said, snapping out of her thoughts. "He was wandering around by the bridge just a few blocks south of here. Couldn't have been more than nine years old, light hair, traditional dress and I couldn't see his parents anywhere."

The man nodded, writing something down on his note pad before running a hand through his dark brown hair. "We'll get someone down there to check on it as soon as we can," he assured her in a monotone voice.

"Thank you so much," she bowed, hoping it didn't look too mechanical. "I have to leave now, if you don't mind." He'd already taken all of her information, so she saw no reason why she shouldn't be able to leave. Sure enough, no one stopped her as she slipped out of the door, and she also noticed that no one even glanced at the little boy she practically dragged behind her.

xXx

He remembered this room from before; the vague snatches he could piece together that were his life before the void. He'd always hated this room. Dark, except for the bright light in the middle, illuminating anyone in the center of the wide area in the middle while making the rest of the gigantic space so dark anyone standing in the light would never be able to really see through the blackness the rest of the room was cast in. Unless one could read riatsu figures definitively, it was impossible to tell who watched you from that darkness. He once again thanked the tatters that used to be his mind for at least coming up with the idea to disguise himself. No one in the darkness knew who really stood before them...

"We have listened to your warnings," a man's voice from one direction shot out. "We have even begun to interfere after much deliberation, and now you require more?"

"I only require what is necessary to save our existence," he spoke, hoping his voice had more finesse than he felt at the moment.

"Upon your word," the voice shot back.

"Sending a warning," a calmer but much more commanding voice—one he could never forget—broke in, "to the Soul Society is within our limits. We did so out of caution, but we cannot act without proof. Doing so would violate far too many agreements."

//You're the _Ruler_ of the Soul Society,\\ he thought to himself. //You have the _right_ to do something! The _responsibility _even\\ But he did not say that a loud. Doing so would only detriment his cause in their eyes.

He took a deep breath. "Very well," he said, "then may I ask for a small group of your choice from this court or from Squad Zero to act as a body guard? To allow the Unmaker and Kurosaki Ichigo to speak will undoubtedly result in the ruin of the Soul Society...again."

He added just a little emphasis on that last word. That had been the only reason they had believed him before. They could tell he had traveled through time and that he had existed in the void. So many people here had powers dealing with time it would be impossible to fool them all, well that had been his argument in any case, and they'd bought it.

Not for the first time, he wished his memories were still completely intact, but so many holes filled the corners of his mind, mainly thanks to the Unmaker and his personalities. Truthfully, he was lucky to get out of there with what he had intact, and his memories were returning. Unfortunately, they did not come back quickly enough, so he could only act on what information his abused mind could give him at the moment.

He stood in silence while the room around him whispered. Finally, the commanding voice spoke again. "Very well, we will consider your request."

Knowing that was the best he would get, he fought down a sigh and bowed respectfully.

"I thank you for the audience," he said politely before turning and walking out of the door that had opened behind him. He always hated dealing with others from the Royal Court.

xXx

Tatsuki's mind had gone almost completely blank as she climbed up the stairs, a very tired child in tow. Tonight had not been a good night for her.

First running into the Ichigo-look-alike and stirring up old memories and wounds that she'd thought had long-since healed. Yeah, that sucked. Then came the police station. That sucked worse. Then she'd had issues buying tickets for the train, accidentally asking for two and having issues there and had people stare at her funny all the way home when she wouldn't let anyone sit in the seat next to her.

Yeah, not a good night. The more she thought about it, the more it messed with her, and the more her mind insisted on running around in circles.

Seriously, though, what were the odds of her running into a soul that wasn't a soul who looked exactly like Ichigo and had his name. What the heck was he doing here? Why wasn't he dressed like a shinigami? As far as she knew shinigami were the only people who could come back from the afterlife. So this kid could only be an orange-haired shinigami named Ichigo come back to Earth. How could it _not_ be her Ichigo? There were too many coincidences.

So this had to be Ichigo. Right? But then why was he nine years old again? Why didn't he know or remember her? Maybe it was some kid that got Ichigo's memories...subconsciously or something? But then how did _that_ kind of thing work? Could this be some sort of reincarnation? No, Ichigo had been missing for two years, not nine.

A son maybe? She shook the thought out of her head almost as soon as it came in. Ichigo hadn't been that kind of person. Period.

So...what?!

It had been about that point (somewhere on the train ride home) that her mind had just shut down. Thankfully, Ichigo had fallen asleep beside her for most of the way, not that she could really tell when he woke up as he never said anything and always stared blankly ahead...like he'd lost a very important part of himself.

Like her Ichigo had looked when he'd lost his mother.

The door flew open as she placed her foot on the final step, silhouetting a reddish-brown-haired woman with very ample assets and a warm smile.

"Tatsuki-chan," she said with a grin. "I'm so glad you're back. You had me worried! What happened with the...boy..." her voice faded off, and Tatsuki saw her eyes fix on the little boy half-hidden behind her.

"Please," Tatsuki heard herself say, nudging the little boy forward towards the other woman and the light coming from inside the house. "Tell me I'm not going insane."

xXx

When one experiences a traumatic situation their mind cannot handle, their mental and emotional progression can be slowed or even frozen for years. Thus, when one experiences a similar trauma afterwords, their mind and emotions will revert to the age of the first trauma.

When Orihime had been told about Ichigo's death and subsequent disappearance, very suddenly she'd found that she hadn't been a graduate student living alone above her new business. Instead, she'd suddenly become a middle-school girl, watching as her brother was carted off in an ambulance, never to be seen alive again.

She'd almost forgotten the feeling of utter hopelessness and despair that came with losing a family member. It came back double strength with Ichigo. Tatsuki moving into the spare room on the other end of the apartment had helped a lot, but Orihime had never really been able to move on. She knew it was bad for her health, and that it would keep hurting her, but it just didn't feel right to move on. To her, it would insult his memory as she'd once insulted Sora's memories, and that was one thing she could never do.

So she'd thrown herself into her cafe, spending every spare minute on advertising and/or running the little diner. Every now and then, Tatsuki would manage to drag her out to a bar or something like that, but for the most part, she found herself content to simply exist without any serious reminders of her past.

It had taken her two years to build protective barriers around those painful memories in her mind, and it only took two seconds for a little boy to unknowingly tear through them like tissue paper.

She sat there for several moments, trying to pick up the clutter that had become her mind as she stared at the orange-haired boy.

"I—Ichigo..." she whispered, vaguely acknowledging Tatsuki's wince at her tone of voice. Of course, he didn't look exactly like the Ichigo she remembered. She hadn't known the boy before her brother had been taken to the Kurosaki clinic, and had only really acknowledged him when Tatsuki had introduced them her last year of middle school. Despite this, there was no doubt in her mind that Kurosaki Ichigo stood before her at this very moment.

The biggest difference between the man she remembered and the boy who stood before her now (besides the height) was the expression. Instead of the hard determination knitted into a scowl, his eyes spoke of an utter pain and heartache that Orihime could relate to all too well. His face looked blank, uncaring and utterly exhausted.

"So, you can see him too?" Tatsuki finally spoke again. It took Orihime several seconds of blinking before she realized her friend had spoken, and even longer before she could comprehend the other's words.

"N-no one else can...?" she started, unable to finish the question. "But then...how...?"

The dark-haired girl shook her head as she absently kicked off her shoes. She stepped forward into the house, dragging the boy behind her, not even bothering to try and get him to take off his own sandals. "I don't know," she said. "It doesn't make any sense."

Orihime studied them for a moment as they walked past. "Yeah," she said absently, "Chibi Ichigo's adorable though."

Tatsuki paused, her facial features relaxing slightly as a smile tugged at her lips. "You never change," she muttered.

"So...is he really Ichigo?" the light-haired girl followed them into the apartment, watching as Tatsuki sat the boy on the couch before sitting next to him, never letting go of his little hand.

"That's what he says his name is," Tatsuki replied with a sigh.

For the first time in almost two years, Orihime felt a bubble of hope rise within her chest. A _viable_ hope, not the vague desperation that resembled hope that she usually clung to. Ichigo was back. He looked different, but he'd returned to them after all.

It took every ounce of self control to keep those tears from streaming down her cheeks.

"You know what this means," she said when she could trust herself to speak.

"What?" Tatsuki asked tiredly.

A gleam entered Orihime's eyes as she spoke again. "He really was kidnapped by aliens!"

xXx

Normally it would bother Ichigo to no end to listen to people talk about him in his presence, but at the moment, he felt too emotionally drained to really care. He only knew he was safe at this point. Both girls seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn't bring himself to really want to know. After all, his last memory had hurt so much...

"Hey," he felt a gentle prod on his shoulder from the dark-haired woman who wouldn't let go of his hand, and slowly looked up into her dark, tired eyes. "Could you answer a few questions for us?"

He shrugged, turning to stare straight ahead again. She apparently took that for a 'yes' and muttered her thanks before she started.

"What's your name?"

"Ichigo."

"Your full name," she clarified.

"Kuchiki Ichigo."

"What?!" the other girl in the room burst out so suddenly it caused Ichigo to jump. The dark-haired woman's face seemed to mirror the other's feelings without being quite so vocal.

"Kuchiki?" the dark-haired woman (Tatsuki?) pressed.

Ichigo nodded.

"So," the light-haired woman exchanged glances with the other girl, "are you from the Soul Society?"

That hadn't been a question he'd really expected, and it almost broke through the fog that had settled over his mind. He blinked and turned to look at her questioningly. "How did you know that?"

"No one else can see you, kid," Tatsuki said dryly. "That and the name 'Kuchiki' associated with you is too much of a coincidence."

The other woman's face had paled several shades. "D-do you think that h-he and Kuchiki-san...?"

Tatsuki shook her head vehemently. "Ichigo wasn't like that."

That did snap Ichigo out of his preoccupation. "You...you used to know m—er, Ichigo? Kurosaki Ichigo?"

This time the girls' exchanged uncertain and very long looks, seeming more than a little uncomfortable.

"Yes," the light-haired girl said finally. "We did."

Ichigo didn't know exactly what to say. On the one hand, he really didn't feel like talking or asking questions at all. On the other hand, he still had a small desire to find out everything about his former self. Caught between the conflict, he returned the girl's stare as they continued to study him.

That's when he caught sight of the hair-pins.

"You're the princess," he said suddenly, proud of himself for putting all of the information he'd been given together. The girl looked even more startled than she had before. "They told me about you and your little fairies!"

The light-haired woman's expression suddenly fell. "'They' told you?" she asked softly.

"Rukia-taichou, Hanatarou-san and Urahara-san," he said as those three came immediately to mind. He didn't think he really could mention everyone who had told him stories about his former self.

"So...how did you meet Rukia-taichou?" Tatsuki asked slowly.

Ichigo paused for a moment. He wasn't supposed to tell anyone about his true identity, but he didn't see any problems telling anyone how Rukia-taichou had found him.

"Well," he started, "I was just waking up one day...in the rukongai," he added quickly when he saw their confused expressions. "And I heard that there was a shinigami, so I went to see..."

xXx

Karin didn't cry often. That had been part of her personality since childhood, just after their mother had died. She hadn't had a lot to contribute to running the household, so she figured the least she could do was try not to become a burden to the rest of her family.

That had changed when she met Kouhei. Actually, that's how she'd met him. It had been one of those days where everything went wrong, right after she'd found out about Ichigo's death. At the end of the day, she found herself sitting on a bus bench, staring blankly ahead when someone had come and sat beside her. She'd vaguely recognized him as someone from her class who had talked with her a few times. She hadn't acknowledged him with more than a nod when he spoke.

"You know, it's okay to cry."

That had thrown her for a loop. "Huh?"

He had sighed. "So many people think of crying as a sign of weakness. It's not. It's a sign of strength because it means you can acknowledge what's wrong in your life. It only becomes a weakness if you focus on crying and not doing anything about the cause."

At that point, she'd just nodded and smiled, hoping it didn't look too fake. Who did he think he was, butting into her life like that? That's what had run through her head. But that night, when she got home, she had thought about it until she found herself sobbing aloud. That was the first time she had cried in years. And truthfully, it had helped.

It took her almost a month to flatten her pride and thank him. When she had, he'd asked her out. The rest, as they say, was history.

It was also the reason why she was clutching his shirt and holding him so closely now. They were both worried for Ichigo, and had been out all day searching for him. She wasn't crying. The situation hadn't gotten nearly dire enough for that, but just having him hold her close...it helped in ways she could never begin to repay him for.

She dialed a number on her phone again, plugging her ear against the noise of the bus they were riding on. Her father had taken the car earlier, which left them to search with the only transportation they had. The phone rang, and Yuzu picked up the other line.

"Did you find him?" she asked immediately.

Karin sighed. "No," she said. "We're on our way home now."

A pause from the other end. "It is getting awfully late, isn't it?"

"Maybe he'll be there when we return home!" Karin heard her father yell in the background and wished she were there to smack him. Yuzu never would.

"Yeah, maybe," was all she could bring herself to say, to tired to go into a verbal reprimand that would have to be given through Yuzu anyway. "We'll see you when we get there," she said as hopefully as she could. "Bye."

"Bye, Karin," Yuzu said softly, and the line went dead.

They'd only just met him again, and now he was gone. It felt like losing her older brother all over again. There was no telling what would happen. Maybe he'd run into a hollow, or worse (although she couldn't think of worse at the moment, but felt sure there was indeed a 'worse'). Would they ever see him again at all? Maybe--

"Hey," Kouhei's soft voice broke through her thoughts. "He'll be fine."

Thankful yet again for his quiet understanding, Karin leaned her head on his shoulder as he put his arm around her again. "Yeah," she said, ignoring the stares they were getting for their 'public display of affection'. "Thanks."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head.

"You're welcome."

xXx

Ishida Uryuu hated America. He hated how everything spread out instead of up, and how every single person insisted on taking up more space than they really needed. He hated how they all assumed they were so superior. He hated their business, their politics, their diarrhea of emotions, he hated just about everything...except for the one thing that mattered: His father did not live there, and for that reason alone, he loved America.

Well, that and the fact that their clothing design and sewing classes weren't half-bad either.

Still, it felt good to come home every now and then, his father and his stupid marriage meetings aside. He never really realized how much he missed Japan until he came back. Happened every time, too.

Besides, they didn't have 24-hour sewing stores in America.

He hadn't told anyone he'd be back this time. Truthfully, he'd come quite a ways from being the prude he'd been in High School (he half blamed America for that one too), so he figured he could drop by Inoue's place after a few days relaxing at the hotel and surprise everyone.

So his cell phone ringing at three in the morning as he walked towards one of his favorite shops surprised him. At first he thought it had to be one of the few American acquaintances he'd actually given his number to. When Inoue's name appeared highlighted by the glow of the phone's light, his surprised turned to worry. His internal clock may say it was just after noon, but Inoue's shouldn't.

"Moshi, moshi," he said, putting the phone to his ear.

A slight pause didn't put any of his doubts to rest. Finally, a soft voice met his ears. "I-Ishida-san? I'm sorry to trouble you."

Typical Inoue. She was undoubtedly troubled or inconvenienced, and she still wanted to make sure everyone else felt comfortable before her.

"It is no trouble," he assured her. "Is anything wrong?"

"Well..." she faded into a pause again.

"Inoue-san?"

He could see her jump and wave her hands around. "Oh no, never mind. I was just thinking it might be good to talk."

"At three in the morning?"

It wasn't the fact that she didn't answer, but the kind of pause it turned into. He could tell she wanted to tell him something, but either didn't know how to say it or felt too embarrassed to try. Knowing Inoue, probably a little of both.

Sighing, he stopped and changed directions. "I'll be there in an hour."

"Huh?" the surprise in her voice brought a smile to his face.

"I'm in Japan. I would have stopped by tomorrow anyway."

"Oh," she said softly. "I'm so glad."

That _really_ worried him. She rarely showed that kind of insecurity, and he hated it when she did. It reminded him too much of the beaten shell they'd pulled out of Hueco Mundo all those years ago. It had taken Inoue a very long time to regain her old spirit. He didn't want to see anything tear that down again.

"So," he changed subjects, even as he headed towards a pay phone to call a taxi, "how has your cafe been doing lately?"

Inoue Orihime was one of his best friends. He knew when to distract her.

xXx

"I really hate these things!" the soul voice practically screamed out, earning a few disapproving glances from the surrounding crowd before they hurried on.

"We heard you the first hundred times," the hollow muttered darkly.

"Hey," the human voice spoke up, "at least _he's_ not waiting for us."

"It must be considered out of 'their' jurisdiction," the fourth voice stated, calmly moving through the crowd.

The human voice spoke again, more subdued this time. "You really think he's gone to the royal court?"

"It would explain a lot."

"Doesn't mean it's right..." but the human voice's argument sounded weak even to him.

"You're an idiot," the hollow voice spat. "Remember? It was a royal court guard that started this whole thing! That's how they got involved to begin with."

"You don't know that," the human voice shot back.

The fourth voice spoke again. "But it is a high possibility," he said calmly.

"So you're saying he's right?" the human voice growled.

"Aw man," the soul voice groaned. "If he is, we are so doomed!"


	14. Reunion

_Knock, knock. _

Chad rapped lightly on the door as he fought a yawn. He didn't normally go calling on friends at four in the morning, but Inoue had sounded more than a little distressed over the phone. As Chad wasn't one to neglect his friends, he dutifully got out of bed and rode his bicycle half-way across town at her request. That alone worried him somewhat. Inoue didn't often ask for anything.

Tatsuki coming to answer the door didn't surprise him. Seeing that she looked just about as worried and exhausted as Inoue had sounded, did. The dark-haired girl had circles under her drooping eyes, but the way she moved broadcasted the fact that she wasn't about to stop any time soon.

"Sado-kun," she greeted tiredly and opened the door, skipping formalities like she normally did. He stepped into the apartment, noting the modern décor as he always did. It amused him that the apartment had taken on hints of both women, combining in a very unique fashion.

He simply nodded as he slipped his shoes off and she shut the door. Never having been one for speaking unless he felt it necessary, he kept quiet, figuring that they would speak to him when they felt ready.

"Look," the girl ran a hand through her hair as she spoke, making it look even messier than it already had. "We..." she paused, looking more than a little frustrated. "I don't really know how to explain it."

"Show me," he responded in his normal, matter-of-fact tone.

Tatsuki eyed him warily before sighing and letting her hand flop back to her side. "I guess that would be the best way...but I know I'm gonna feel stupid." With that she turned and began walking down the hall. Curious now, Chad followed. "Orihime's with him now. Can't believe she actually talked me into letting go of his hand."

That one also threw Chad for a loop. Him? "Him" who? He'd heard Inoue mention somebody when she'd called him, but she'd sounded so upset and worried that he hadn't been able to make any of it out. He'd even suggested she call Ishida, as the Quincy had a knack for calming her down.

So who--

His train of thought skidded to a halt as he walked into the room to see a sleeping Inoue Orihime sitting on the couch, cradling a head of orange hair in her lap. A boy, no more than nine or ten years old, also slept curled up under a blanket, resting his head on her leg.

Was that why they had called? Because they found a kid who looked like Ichigo? He almost mentally sighed. Yeah it had hurt to lose Ichigo—a lot—but Ichigo wouldn't want them to fawn over him, even after his death. _Especially _after his death.

Chad had long ago figured that he just didn't get women but decided to humor them until he could figure out what to say without really hurting them. "Who's he?"

"Kuchiki Ichigo."

Okay, that wasn't funny. Still, he only raised an eyebrow, trying to remain solid and stoic despite his growing worry regarding his friends' sanity.

Tatsuki nodded towards the two. "That's his name. Seriously."

This time Chad raised the other eyebrow. He could tell that no matter the actual truth, she really believed her own words. He shook his head, beginning to understand why the girls had panicked. How many orange-haired _boys_ were named Ichigo?

"Plus, I took him to the police station, and no one could see him."

Chad couldn't help his face paling at the implications in her words.

"To top it all off, I found him wandering around the area where Ichigo's mother died 19 years ago yesterday." She shook her head as if trying to clear it and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Apparently he's from the soul society and Rukia took him in because he looked like Ichigo."

Well, at least that explained a few things. "Then what is he doing here?"

"And where's Rukia?" the disheveled girl nodded. "Yeah, we thought of those questions too. Thing is, we were kind of lucky to get even that much out of the kid. He's...not exactly in the best state of mind right now, and he won't tell us why." She ran a hand through her short hair, looking slightly more frazzled. "It's just...there's just too much of a coincidence. I can't believe he's just some random kid from the Soul Society, and I can't believe that someone who isn't a shinigami would come here to Earth."

"Shinigami academy?" the tall man speculated, unconsciously fingering the paso he wore as a necklace. It had become as much of a symbol of his and Ichigo's friendship as it had his vow to abuelo.

Tatsuki considered his question for a moment. "That's a good one. But isn't he too young? Even for the soul society? And why would they let him come here out of uniform?" Chad shrugged and opened his mouth to say something when a new voice broke through his thoughts.

"Sado-kun!" Inoue-san's soft words caused them both to look over at where she smiled up at them tiredly, but happily. Just from the look on her face he could tell she'd already accepted this boy as Ichigo, impossible as that was. The large man felt his heart sink at that realization. There was a good chance this kid was related to Ichigo in one way or another, but that didn't mean this _was_ Ichigo. He didn't want to contemplate what would happen to the girl when she found out that this wasn't her teenage object of affections.

"Welcome!" she went on in a hushed voice and gestured to the one empty cushion. "Have a seat! But be careful, we just got him to sleep."

He figured he'd better just smile and nod for now, and try to figure out how to convince her that this wasn't Ichigo later. There simply wasn't any way it could be. The math didn't make sense. Unless they had missed something...

Nodding, he carefully took the seat on the couch so as not to wake the sleeping boy.

"So," the light-haired girl grinned over at him, "how ar--"

The doorbell cut her off before she could finish. Excusing herself, she left Chad and Orihime in a rather awkward silence until she returned with Ishida in tow. Chad blinked in surprise. Wasn't he supposed to be in America?

The Quincy stopped abruptly at the door as he took the scene in. Chad was vaguely reminded of the time when Yourichi had spoken to Ishida the first time, and for a moment he expected some sort of freak-out explosion from the normally calm man. However, either he had changed more than they realized since back then, or he quickly came to a similar conclusion that Chad had when he'd come in earlier; that the girls had freaked out over a simple look-alike. Either way, it took him a moment to gather his wits, but he eventually turned his attention to Chad and nodded at him before taking a seat.

"Alright," Tatsuki said with a tired sigh. "Guess I'd better start from the beginning. Here's what happened..."

xXx

"I didn't know what else to do," Tatsuki-san sighed and sat back in her chair, radiating exhaustion. "So I brought him back here."

"I see," Ishida said as the woman finished the story. "And you were theorizing when I showed up? What ideas have you come up with?"

"Well," the dark-haired girl looked down uncomfortably. "We were thinking it could be his son, but he assured us he wasn't."

Ishida's eyebrow rose at that. "He knows about Kurosaki?"

"Yup," Inoue-san piped up quietly. "He said he wants to know everything about Ichigo because he was named after him."

"By the Kuchiki's?" He couldn't help sounding skeptical. From what he'd heard of and met of the rest of the Kuchiki family (besides Rukia) they weren't exactly fond of Ichigo. Why would they name a kid after him and then adopt the boy? It just didn't fit his mental picture of the family.

Tatsuki-san caught his look and shrugged. "Apparently."

"I see," he rubbed his chin with his hand. "What other theories?"

"Chad said something about the Shinigami school," Inoue-san said, sounding much more cheerful than she had on the phone earlier.

"But he's too young," Tatsuki-san interjected. "I mean he can't be more than eight or nine."

Ishida shook his head and sat back. "No, age doesn't matter in the Soul Society because they age more slowly."

"So then, how old is he really?" the light-haired girl frowned down at Ichigo for the first time since Ishida had arrived.

"Captain Hitsugaya was in his late forties when we first met him," Ishida shrugged and sat back a little in his chair.

"So that rules out that he's Ichigo altogether, right?" Chad said softly, voicing the words no one else wanted to say. Inoue-san looked down, suddenly finding the bright orange hair her hands played with far more interesting than her old friends. "I mean," the dark-haired boy went on, "if they age more slowly, then this boy could easily be Ichigo's age if he were still alive today."

Inoue-san gasped, gaining the worried looks of the others. "So he's Kurosak-kun's twin brother?!"

As strange as it sounded, Ishida had to admit it was a real possibility.

"Well, we know he wasn't born in the soul society if he just woke up in the Rukongai one day," the Quincy affirmed. Then something about that thought struck him. "That can't be it."

"Why not?" Inoue-san, of course.

Ishida shrugged. "If one dies as a baby, then they will continue life on the other side from that age on like they were living their life here. Few people should remember something from that young of an age.... Did he say he could remember his life before?"

Tatsuki-san eyed him warily. "He said he had a few flashes, but wouldn't tell us more."

"Maybe he's a clone!" Inoue-sane voiced, her voice gaining a note of desperation. "Maybe he was created by the Soul Society after Kurosaki-kun beat and saved everyone."

Ishida watched out of the corner of his eye as Tatsuki-san put a hand to her eyes muttering, "Here she goes again."

Sure enough, the light-haired girl continued excitedly. "Beacuase they wanted to have someone as strong as Kurosaki-kun on their side! So they had Captain Kurotsuchi make a clone of him!"

The Quincy found himself rather disturbed when he realized this idea actually made some sort of sick sense as well, knowing that freak of a shinigami captain...

"Hey," Tatsuki-san spoke up, obviously trying to head the conversation before Inoue-san could continue coming up with more unlikely and disturbing ideas. "How about we not jump to conclusions. What if he's just an orange-haired kid that Kuchiki-san picked up and named after Ichigo?"

Ishida looked at her skeptically. He could tell she didn't really believe that, and neither did he, although it was a likely possibility...

"What do we do then?" Chad asked, speaking up for the first time since Ishida had arrived.

Tatsuki-san sighed, sitting back on the couch. "Isn't it obvious?" For some reason the dark-haired Quincy found himself becoming very wary at the tone in her voice. "We need to get all the information we can. We need to contact the Soul Society."

Ishida sighed inwardly. Her suggestion made sense, but that didn't make it any more desirable. That meant a trip to Urahara's place. Great. If his father ever found out about this, he'd probably try to kill him...again.

xXx

One man. The Royal Council had come to the conclusion that one man was all they could spare. The idiots. No wonder the Soul Society wanted no part in dealing with them.

Akio sighed. They'd ruined what had promised to be an excellent day. He'd woken up with a name on his mind. It had taken him a little while to realize that was _his_ name. How long had it taken him to remember? Far too long. But now he had a vital clue to himself and to who he used to be.

He'd known he'd been born and lived in the Royal Court. He knew he'd received training here. He also knew he should know several of the people he'd run into already, but that had been difficult when he hadn't even remembered himself. So many places had seemed familiar, but the confusion in his head had prevented anything from really coming back to him before then. It felt like trying to undo a knot of string and hair with leather gloves on. Truthfully, even coming up with his name had been an accomplishment.

So now he was going to meet this man that would act at Kurosaki Ichigo's body guard. Akio, of course, would be going as backup. He wasn't about to stick around this place and let other people do all the work. The Royal Court apparently already had plenty of people who could (and would) do that.

He sighed as he stepped from the doorway where he'd been standing into the gate room. Here they would make their way from this place to the Soul Society. He scanned the large, black room (they seemed to like those kinds of rooms around this place) with the brightly lit, square gate in the center. A man stood in front of said gate, obviously waiting.

Akio walked up to him and bowed politely, hoping his disgust at the council's decision didn't show on his face. The soldier wore a black wrap around his head that fell down by the sides of his face over a faded violet robe and black hakama pants. He wore two swords at his side, looking every inch the traditional Samurai despite the head wrap. In this light, Akio couldn't see his hair color.

"Good day," the other man bowed politely as Akio walked up to him. "You may call me 'Roku' for the duration of this mission."

Akio wanted to scream. Six. That meant sixth seat. Not only had they not given him at least a squad as he'd asked, but they hadn't even given this mission their highest ranked soldier. He felt his mouth thin into a line, but managed to return the bow.

"I am pleased to meet you," he returned. "You may call me Akio."

The man raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. Nodding to the area behind the gate, he turned, keeping watch on the soldier out of the corner of his eye. Something about this man seemed awfully familiar. Perhaps he knew him.

Well, if he could glean some part of his past off of this man, then maybe this trip wouldn't be completely pointless.

xXx

Calling for a taxi had been a good idea, Tatsuki thought tiredly, even if it was a little squished. Chad sat up front, while the three smaller people and Ichigo got in back, with Orihime in the middle, still cradling a sleeping Ichigo. Surprisingly the kid hadn't woken up once even as they had situated themselves in the car.

Now they rode in silence. Orihime had already dozed off on Tatsuki's shoulder, and the dark-haired girl was finding it hard not to give into the fatigue herself. They figured it would probably take them a good hour and a half to get to Karakura town, and had been lucky to find a Taxi company that would take them that far. Ishida had offered to pay, for which she had been grateful. Neither her nor Orihime were exactly rolling in cash, since just about every extra cent went into the cafe, but she figured she should at least try to help Ishida pay the bill a little--it wouldn't be cheap.

Her head had just dropped back against the seat, her mind going blissfully blank in sleep when a noise awakened everyone in the car.

"Mmm..." Ichigo muttered, just loudly enough to cause everyone to jump and turn their attention onto him. He pushed himself up and out of Orihime's arms, rubbing his eyes and took in his surroundings. From the look on his face, it took him a minute to process the fact that he had been moved to a vehicle surrounded by strange people, at least two of which he didn't know at all.

Blinking, he turned and looked up at Orihime, and then Tatsuki. "What's going on, lady?"

For several tense moments, everyone in the car exchanged glances.

"Um, Ichigo, these are our friends," she said slowly, unsure of what to really do. Then his words really sank in. "And why did you call me 'lady'? You know my name." She glared at him for a moment while he stared right back up at her. Finally, she sighed and decided to introduce everyone.

"This," she gestured to the dark-haired boy sitting in the back with them, "is Ishida-san."

Ichigo turned to the bespectacled man, and his face instantly fell into a slight scowl. "You have a stupid outfit," he said.

"Ichigo!" Orihime said, sounding shocked while Tatsuki just blinked. In any other situation, and if she hadn't been so tired, she would have laughed at that, but it just reminded her even more of Ichigo.

Looking only slightly shamed, the boy glanced out of the corner of his eyes at Orihime before sighing and then bowed stiffly from his awkward position to Ishida. "Please excuse me," he muttered, not sounding sincere at all. "I'm pleased to meet you." Still scowling, he looked at the two people in front. The driver didn't seem to be interested in them at all, but Chad had turned around to watch them over his shoulder.

"And that's Sado-kun," Tatsuki said.

"Chad," Ichigo said suddenly. This time, no one even tried to hide their incredulous stares. "You're Chad."

"How did you know that?" Chad asked quietly. "Ichigo called me that..."

The orange-haired boy suddenly looked slightly uncomfortable. "Oh, Hanatarou told me your name," he said through a rather weak smile. "He told me that you and 'Hime-san helped Ichigo save the world." Chad didn't seem too happy to accept this explanation, but he nodded and relaxed anyway.

Orihime looked away, blushing. "I didn't do anything," she muttered, although only Ishida and Tatsuki could hear her. The latter figured even they weren't supposed to.

Ishida shook his head and sat forward, scowling. "Too much," he said curtly.

"Huh?" several people asked.

"The responses you had, the random knowledge, your family name and where you come from...it's too much. You aren't really Kuchiki Ichigo at all, are you?"

Looking suddenly every inch the child he was, Ichigo paled and glanced uncertainly up at Tatsuki.

"Ano..." he mumbled, but Ishida wasn't done.

"You really are Kurosaki Ichigo, aren't you?"

Tatsuki wanted to smack the Quincy for his abrupt manner, but couldn't quite manage it without reaching across both Ichigo and Orihime. The poor kid had been a walking zombie the night before. The last thing he needed right now was an interrogation and accusations. Still, she found herself unable to take her eyes off of the boy, hoping for the answer herself.

Ichigo's eyes flew wide, and he suddenly began glancing around at everyone like a frightened animal.

"Uh...I...I mean..." he continued to stutter, starting sentences but somehow unable to finish them.

"You can tell us the truth, Ichigo-kun," Orihime sat forward with her encouraging smile firmly in place.

"I—I uh..." he continued to glance at everyone, shrinking back and away from the three in the back seat as much as he could. "I can't...I promised."

"Who did you promise?" Ishida pressed. "What did you promise?"

Ichigo gulped, looking slightly panicked. Then, suddenly, his expression changed entirely. "Why should I tell a skinny stick like you?" Ichigo shot back, not sounding intimidated or frightened at all. Actually, it sounded a lot more like what their Ichigo would say to that kind of an interrogation from Ishida. Too much like him...

"I'll bet it was Kuchiki," Ishida concluded, his eyes narrowed at Ichigo for a minute before he sat back, although his gaze never left the defiant boy. "Then we'll have to ask her, and she'd better have a very good explanation."

They rode the rest of the way in an awkward silence, Ichigo shooting glares at Ishida the whole way while everyone else stewed on their own thoughts. Eventually, Tatsuki thankfully drifted off into a dreamless doze.


	15. Interrupted Break

Well, a bit of a longer chapter this time. Please enjoy and critique if you can.

* * *

Rukia appeared in front of Urahara's shop, stopping from her shunpo abruptly and yet still managing to maintain some grace in her movements as usual. In seconds, she had calmly walked up to the door and opened it, stepping into the dim interior.

She had not taken two steps before Urahara popped out of the back room. "Kuchiki-san," he greeted her in his usual manor, his eyes closed in a smile and mouth hidden behind his fan. "So you heard? You didn't have to come."

Rukia shot him a dry look. His absolute normal actions (for Urahara) told her that he really wasn't worried in the slightest, despite Ichigo having practically vanished from under his nose. However, she couldn't help but feel a responsibility to come. Ichigo was her ward now, so some of the blame belonged to her.

She ignored the fact her hands shook a little, as she did her best to quell her worry.

"What exactly happened?" She asked after a few seconds, wondering how much he would tell her this time. Knowing him, he already knew where Ichigo had gone...but then, one could never tell with the shop keeper. She'd often wondered, and been unable to answer even with hind-sight, how many times the man that stood before her really had no clue as to how anything would turn out and just winged it, even with everyone's life in his hands.

"He remembered a few things," the man responded, his tone becoming more serious, even if his smile didn't lessen in the slightest.

"What did he remember?" she asked, hoping she sounded calmer than she felt.

Urahara's eyes opened and he looked at her for a long moment. "His Mother."

Rukia felt the worry double in intensity. "I see."

The blond man let the fan fall to the side of his face as he looked at her. "You know," he said after a moment, "you sound like your brother."

"Huh?" Rukia asked, feeling an unwitting blush touch her cheeks. "I mean, what makes you say that?" How could anyone compare her to Byakuya-nii-sama?

"Nothing, nothing," he waved his fan at her dismissively, the grin returning in full force. "We already had Jinta, Ururu, Tessai, the mod souls and all of the Kurosaki family out looking for him earlier. My subordinates and Tessai are still gone, and the Kurosaki's will start again early tomorrow. I'm sure we'll have him back here in no time."

Rukia nodded, regaining her composure quickly. "I'll go look too," she said firmly and turned to leave.

"Rukia-san," his voice stopped her. She paused, looking over her shoulder. "Before you leave, would you like to know where we have already looked?"

Fighting back a sigh, she relaxed slightly with a nod. "Yes, of course."

He began walking back towards the shop's back rooms, the motion itself inviting her to follow him. She complied, feeling somehow suspicious of his actions. Then again, she usually felt like that around the ex-captain.

He had a map of Karakura Town and the surrounding areas in one of the back rooms. Rukia had seen it before, so when he practically pulled it down out of nowhere, it didn't surprise her. Immediately, he knocked his cane against one area.

"You should look here."

"Why?" Rukia half wondered if he had prearranged it, or if he just had people search wherever his cane happened to land.

"Because no one has looked there yet," he grinned, "and it would be faster and easier if someone with shinigami powers could cover that area."

Rukia opened her mouth to ask why Jinta, Tessai, Ururu and the mod souls hadn't looked there yet, but closed it without saying anything and nodded with a sigh. It had taken her a while to learn to just go with whatever he asked if she really knew what was good for her (and for whoever else happened to be involved) no matter the pain and difficulty required.

And, if she had to be honest with herself, most things he asked required said pain and difficulty. This would likely be a particularly difficult-to-navigate area, or had some other problem that would otherwise become a pain in her side. Joy.

"When you're done with that area," he continued brightly, "this area here would be best." He moved his cane again without looking. She felt a vein in her head throb slightly. Why did this man always get to her like that? Was it just part of his personality, or did he really try to annoy, tease and otherwise look down on her?

She quickly memorized where the two areas she'd been "assigned" were located and turned to leave again.

"Aren't you going to say 'Of course, Urahara-sama! Thank you so much for all your help!'?" he asked before she could step through the door.

"Me? Say that?" she again tried to keep her voice calm, but felt that vein in her forehead throb even more and decided she could sacrifice a little dignity to shoot him an poisonous glance. He just shrugged sheepishly.

Then his attention didn't seem to be on her very suddenly. His eyes looked past her, towards the shop entrance, although neither one could really see it at the moment. Curious (and all the more suspicious) at his actions, she focused her attention toward the front of the store and felt several strong presences approaching.

One of them was Ichigo.

Eyes wide, she wondered how she'd been able to miss it before. Of course, he'd always been so difficult to track because his strong riatsu left a sort of residue wherever he went. If he'd been in an area before for an extended period of time, his spiritual signature would seep into the whole area an make pin-pointing his exact location almost impossible. Even worse, it often became hard to tell if he'd even remained in the same, large area.

Then she realized that she recognized the other signatures too, and felt her face pale several shades. Why them? Why here? Why, when she was under orders to not say anything? What could she tell them? What _should_ she tell them? If they were here, they'd probably figured it all out anyway.

They would _not_ be happy.

"It seems your friends have come," Urahara grinned again. "With Ichigo. I told you he'd be safe."

It took every ounce of control she had not to tell the man to 'shut up' before she left.

The trek through the shop to the door seemed to take forever, time creeping by at a snails pace and yet it passed all too quickly. She reached the door before they did.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open as the group turned the corner in the distance and walked out calmly, despite wanting to run over and examine Ichigo. Not that they'd ever hurt him. A voice that sounded suspiciously like Urahara spoke up in the back of her mind, chiding her for being a "mother hen" again. She ignored it.

They all stopped as soon as they saw her standing on the porch.

//Well, this is going to be awkward,\\ she thought to herself. After a few seconds of silence, she opened her mouth to speak, but someone else beat her to the punch.

"Kuchiki-san!" Inoue Orihime shouted out, a large grin splitting her face as she ran forward and threw her arms around the smaller woman.

Rukia closed her mouth in surprise, unable to do much but blink at the face-full of pink shirt she got. Then her eyes softened, and she couldn't help but smile. Typical Inoue. She hadn't realized how much she missed her human friends. Being a captain kept her busy, but she suspected that subconsciously she'd been avoiding them ever since Ichigo's...

"Kuchiki-san?" Ishida said calmly as Chad stood by, nodding a polite greeting. "So you really are here. Yet another coincidence that I cannot accept." Ichigo's childhood friend—Arisawa Tatsuki, if Rukia remembered correctly—stood silently by an exhausted Ichigo, holding his hand tightly.

Inoue let go and stepped back. "It's so good to see you!" she said. "I mean I haven't seen you since before Ichigo died."

Rukia winced. The woman never changed. Blunt as ever and exuberant to a fault.

"Speaking of," Arisawa said, stepping forward and holding out her and Ichigo's hand. He didn't resist, his eyes glazed over with weariness. "Could you please explain what exactly is going on here?"

xXx

After they all put Ichigo to sleep in a back room, everyone gathered around Urahara's table, sitting in an awkward silence that only Urahara seemed completely immune to, although Inoue acted somewhat resistant due to her utter delight at Rukia's story.

"So," Ishida reached up and pushed his glasses up on his nose with a finger, "you just happened to find him in the Rukongai with no memories and confirmed that he is Kurosaki Ichigo by getting him to release his shikai, and he has been living at your house for the last several weeks to help him regain his memories."

"Yes," Rukia nodded, consciously keeping her face blank.

"And he's a child because when he returned to the Soul Society after his death, his mental and physical age reset to approximately six years old. You have yet to determine the exact cause or reason for this."

Again, Rukia nodded. "Correct."

"And why didn't you inform us?"

Well, she'd been waiting for that one. "For several reasons," she responded coolly. "The first being that the Soul Society wanted to keep this knowledge under wraps. It would cause too much unrest if the wrong people discovered they might be able to regain the memories of their previous life, despite the fact that it would actually be very difficult or almost impossible. Ichigo is a special case, as usual. Therefore, I was under orders not to inform anyone who wasn't a captain.

"Also," she added on, "knowledge of an 8-year-old able to release bankai would undoubtedly cause even more panic.

"The next reason is because, as you heard Urahara explain just now, Ichigo regaining too many memories too quickly could result in some extremely difficult circumstances for everyone, not just him.

"The last reason is that there seems to be someone targeting Ichigo."

Urahara raised an eyebrow at that news and turned to her. "Oh?"

Rukia nodded. "We only discovered this recently, but two men from the royal court actually came to the Soul Society to defend Ichigo when he returns."

"Wait," Arisawa said, inserting herself into the conversation, "if he needs protection, why not send them to protect him here?"

Rukia sighed. This was going nowhere fast. "Politics," she said simply, hoping her voice didn't sound too much like a grumble. "There are several written agreements between the Royal Court and the Soul Society. One of them states that under no circumstances is a court person allowed to set foot in on Earth without express permission from the Gotai 13, the Kido Corps and the Central 46." She shrugged slightly, "No one really knows why, so they are working on changing it or at least getting the permission sent through, but that will take a while. That's part of the reason why I'm here."

"Part of the reason?" Ishida pressed.

"He's my ward now," she said, softly. "I was worried."

Ishida and Arisawa continued to watch her, eyes narrowed for several more seconds while Chad didn't move and Orihime sat staring at the table top.

"You shouldn't have kept it a secret from us," Ishida said finally. "We have no access to the Rukongai to spread rumors and you didn't know about him being targeted until just now. Even if he couldn't see us immediately, we deserved to know."

"Did you expect us to come running directly to you?" Rukia asked, her tone rising just a little.

"Of course not," Ishida shot back, sitting forward. "I wouldn't expect a Shinigami to do much of anything that's actually useful. But how long did you say he's been back? A few weeks? A month? Two? More than enough time to get a message to any one of us."

For a few seconds, Rukia stared at Ishida with surprise, opening her mouth to respond although no sound came out.

Finally, Urahara spoke up. "Let's not go pointing fingers here."

"You're no less guilty!" Ishida rounded on him. "You could have--"

"I said," the blond man shut his fan with a snap, and although his smile never left his face, his presence suddenly became much more sinister. "Let's not point fingers." Even Inoue had turned her attention to the man, blinking warily. "What is important is that you're here now," Urahara continued. "So now perhaps you all can help Ichigo."

"O-of course we will," Inoue said, her voice shaking slightly. "We'll do anything to help Kurosaki-kun."

The former captain turned to her. "I knew you would, Inoue-san. What about the rest of you?"

"I will," Chad said.

"Of course I'd do what I could to help Ichigo!" Arisawa slammed her fist on the table. "I _always_ would have!" Rukia did her best to hide the guilty cringe at the other woman's words.

"No matter how I disagree with you or the Soul Society, I will stand with my friends," Ishida said, moving the glasses up on his nose again. "If I can, I will help Kurosaki."

Urahara raised an eyebrow at him. "So you admit Ichigo was your friend."

Ishida didn't answer for a few moments. "I was insinuating the adults I came with today," he said finally. "But I guess that Kurosaki could technically count in that category as well."

"Excellent!" Urahara said. Opening his fan once again, he turned to Rukia. "Kuchiki-san, would you be so kind as to explain the situation?"

Rukia ground her teeth, silently calling the man a few colorful names. He knew how awkward this was for her, and now he wanted her to explain?! Shooting another angry glare at the man, she gathered her composure and looked as steadily as she could at the others. The only person whose eyes she couldn't seem to meet were Orihime's for some reason.

"I told you that bringing Ichigo's memories back too fast could cause problems for him, mentally and physically." She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to word her thoughts. "As you know, this month is June. Ichigo's family wanted him to come with them yesterday, and made the arrangements to take him for a certain amount of time.

"Urahara's theory," she narrowed her eyes at the man for a split second before returning her attention to the others, "is that the combination of new memories from the family and house and the memorial park overloaded him and he had a sort of mental breakdown. Either that, or the memories regained from the memorial park were too painful for his mind to handle. Either way, he experienced a great deal of trauma."

Arisawa spoke up softly. "So not even his family got to see him until recently?"

"We all agreed on that consensus," Rukia responded with a nod, feeling slightly relieved.

"Not all of us," Ishida said with a glare, but it didn't seem as harsh as it had been.

"You're asking us to leave, aren't you?" Inoue said, her voice soft. "So we don't overload his mind again." The utter heartbreak in her voice wrenched at Rukia's own heart.

"Orihime," Arisawa said softly.

Then the light-haired girl looked up, smiling. "If it will help Kurosaki-kun, I'll--"

"Actually," Urahara cut in, "I wanted you all to be here when he wakes up. Talk to him, maybe take him around the town. He's supposed to be on a vacation. It won't help his mental state to cut that short. Having old friends who were always there for him around will help."

Inoue looked taken aback for a moment, but then her face lit up. "Okay! I can show him my cafe! We can eat lunch there!"

"I thought we were trying _not_ to traumatize him again," Arisawa said, a smile on her own face. Even Rukia found herself smiling at that.

"Now," Urahara stood up, "you all need rest. Although I'm sure Ichigo-san would find it funny if you all fell asleep during your little outing. If you will excuse me, I must get in touch with Ichigo's family."

With that, he got up and walked out of the room, leaving the group sitting in an awkward silence until Ururu walked in and bowed politely.

"Urahara-san had me lay out futons for you," she said. "I will wake you as soon as Ichigo-san wakes up. Please follow me."

Grinning, Inoue stood up, grabbed Tatsuki's arm and dragged her (complaining the whole way) after Ururu into the other room. Chad followed suit almost immediately afterward.

Neither Ishida or Rukia made a move to leave, although no one else seemed to notice.

They sat there in an atmosphere thick enough to cut before Rukia finally cleared her throat. "I'm sorry," she said finally. "I should have contacted you."

"I wouldn't be upset if I never saw another Shinigami again, actually," Ishida shrugged. "But Inoue-san..." he faded off. "She needed it. Everyone could see how much pain she was in. By not telling us, it put her through that much more pain. She did not deserve that." He stood himself, brushing invisible specks of dirt from his surprisingly casual pants before looking down at her. "I didn't think of you as a Shinigami. It's disappointing to find out that you really are just like the rest of them."

Rukia opened her mouth to retort, but for the second time that day, nothing came out. After a minute, Ishida turned and walked out. She could only stare at the door after he slid it closed wondering why she felt so insulted.

xXx

"And this is a red-bean-paste hot chocolate!" Inoue-san put the steaming cup before Ichigo. "It actually dissolves surprisingly well if you heat it up enough."

That was the last of a rather long list of food that the woman had set for him and just about everyone else. To their credit, they all looked just about as reluctant to taste the food as Ichigo felt.

"Alright! Enjoy! I've got to go clean up," she said with a smile, walking into the back, popping something that didn't look remotely like food into her mouth. Ichigo looked around at the people who claimed to be his other self's friends.

_Flash_

"_This is something I heard about from America!" Inoue grinned as she set a plate down in front of Ichigo and Tatsuki. "It's called Macaroni and cheese!"_

"_What else is in there?" Tatsuki asked, nudging the disturbing blob placed before them (that looked nothing like either macaroni or cheese)._

"_Let's see," Inoue held up her hand, counting things off. "Jelly beans, and broccoli, and rice, and seaweed (I decided to put it in instead of wrapping it because I didn't have time) and I got some caviar too."_

_Ichigo and Tatsuki exchanged glances before looking back at the plates in front of them. Then they both felt their stomachs flip-flop as the other woman happily began to devour her own blob..._

_Flash_

Ichigo shook his head. He didn't want any memories today...or ever again.

//Now you're talkin'!\\ Shiro crowed triumphantly in the back of his mind.

"Why hasn't she gone out of business?" Ishida-san asked quietly.

"I've been asking myself that for a very long time," Aris—Tatsuki (she insisted Ichigo call her that) replied.

Chad merely sat there staring at the food. Apparently, he didn't talk very much. He was also the first brave soul to chance a bite from his plate. From the green hue that suddenly came to his skin, he immediately regretted it, and his actions did little to give the others motivation to eat.

Rukia-taichou seemed to be the only one who didn't mind once she took a bite, but she looked so solemn that it to did little to encourage Ichigo.

"I'm not hungry," Ichigo said, turning his attention back to his own plate. Of course, his stomach had to choose that particular moment to let out a loud growl.

Sighing, Tatsuki picked up her fork. "Look, I'll treat everyone who can get half of their plate down to dinner and ice cream later." With that, she took a bite, obviously trying not to let her face twist at the taste. "If you swallow it as fast as you can, it's really not so bad," she said with a forced smile.

"Very well," Ishida said, venturing his own bite. To his credit, he hardly reacted at all, but did not go for a second bite. Instead, he gently picked up his water glass and downed half of it.

"This is going to be a long lunch, isn't it?" Tatsuki asked, moving things around on her plate with her chopsticks.

"Why isn't there anyone else here?" Ichigo asked, taking a look around the empty cafe again.

"Isn't that obvious?" Ishida said under his breath.

Tatsuki elbowed him, then turned to Ichigo. "She closed it today, said it was a family emergency."

"Oh," Ichigo said. He heard some clutter in the back, followed by a loud 'I'm okay!', and picked up his fork.

Half-an-hour later, they all shuffled out into the street, Inoue-san looking decidedly cheerful and Rukia-taichou right behind her, while everyone else stumbled along after them, holding their stomachs. Honestly, Ichigo didn't remember ever feeling this sick.

"Where do we go now?" Orihime turned around with that smile on her face. "We could go see a movie, or we could go to an aquarium (there's one really close), or we could find an open amusement park, or we could go to a concert!"

"Um," Ishida said slowly, "could we just sit down for a minute."

"Okay!" Inoue nodded enthusiastically. "There's a park near here, right Tatsuki-chan?"

Tatsuki forced a smile and nodded.

Slowly, they all made their way the few blocks to the park and collapsed onto a few benches lining the path.

"Ooo, look Kuchiki-san! That tree looks just like the one we used to sit under at school! Remember? Come on! You too, Tatsuki-chan!" Inoue grinned, dragging the other two girls off in a fit of nostalgia the other two did not seem to share.

Ichigo sighed, leaning back against the bench. Ishida-san sat across from them, while Chad sat right beside him.

"You're really big," Ichigo mumbled up to Chad. The man turned to look down at Ichigo through his long bangs.

_Flash_

_Ichigo lay on the ground, looking all the worse for wear with his head tilted back, watching a still tied-up Chad. "Alright, let's do this, Chad," he said, although he felt surprised that anyone (including himself) could understand him with his swollen cheek. "You keep doing your thing and don't fight for yourself. But fight for me, and I'll fight for you. If you put your life on the line to protect something, then I'll put my life on the line to protect it too." _

_Flash_

Immediately Ichigo looked away, bringing a hand to his head.

"Hey, are you alright, Ichigo?" Chad asked. That was probably the most Ichigo had heard the large man speak.

"Uh, yeah," Ichigo muttered, refusing to meet the guy's eyes. Truthfully, he just wanted to go back to the Soul Society and never remember anything ever again. Shiro voiced his approval again at that thought.

Thing was, Ichigo really couldn't leave. He'd promised Urahara-san and Rukia-taichou that he wouldn't run off again.

"Uh, I'll be right back," he muttered, hopping off the bench while trying to ignore his still somewhat upset stomach. "Gotta go to the bathroom."

"I'll come too," Chad said.

"No," Ichigo said quickly. "I'm not a baby. I can go on my own."

Chad looked hurt, but he nodded and sat back. Trying not to feel guilty, Ichigo turned around and began walking down the path towards the public bathroom. It really wasn't their fault. They were just trying to help. It wasn't like he didn't really want them there either. They were nice enough, and even had a calming effect on him; as if when he was with them, nothing could hurt him. But they also gave him more memories, and he'd had just about enough of those to last a lifetime...or several.

He didn't notice his face fall into a half-scowl like the expression naturally belonged there as he walked around back to head into the bathroom. He really had just left to get away, but he'd promised he wasn't going to run off, so he figured he'd better be where he promised he would be.

For several minutes, he just stood there appreciating the quiet and ignoring the harsh, chemical smell that came with public restrooms. He definitely preferred that over the prickling of memories that he'd become so used to for the last several weeks since Rukia-taichou had found him. Especially now since he'd remembered...his thought faded off, and he shook it vehemently out of his head. Maybe being alone wasn't such a good idea after all. Frowning even more, he turned and walked back outside and onto the black path that lead through the park.

"Ichigo!" He looked up at Rukia-taichou's voice and saw the group had assembled near the benches he'd just left. "Ichigo, there you are."

The orange-haired boy looked up, scowl more firmly set on his face than ever. "I was where I said I'd be." That's when he realized she was standing beside another shinigami. At least, he looked like a shinigami, except he wore a blue robe over a traditional shinigami outfit.

As soon as he saw the man, Ichigo stopped short. He felt...off for some reason Ichigo couldn't place.

The man bowed politely to Ichigo, his dark, red-brown hair flashing in the sun. "Nice to meet you," he said, "my name is Akio. I've been sent by the Royal Court to bring you back to the Soul Society."

xXx

Rukia had never met anyone more pig-headed, stubborn and completely infuriating as this 'Akio'. Considering she used to live in Ichgo's closet, that said a lot. It had taken every single person that had left Urahara's shop that morning to convince him not to simply whisk little Ichigo away right then and there. Of course, the minute he'd started towards Ichigo, Inoue, Arisawa and Sado had all gotten in between them. Ishida hadn't been too far behind, and frankly, Rukia couldn't blame them.

Then came the fact that if Rukia hadn't met him previously, there wasn't any way to prove he was really from the Royal Court. He had no identification, no orders on him, no nothing. Apparently, while he was acting on behalf of the Royal Court, he wasn't actually part of it. He held no seat or position as far as she knew and as such he could come to Earth and avoid many political problems, but that also limited his actions.

She'd had to reiterate that point several times before he agreed to let them go back to Urahara's shop so she could confirm orders. Of course, he'd wanted to know why she couldn't just confirm orders right then and there. She'd pointed out, rather coldly, that Ichigo had friends and family on Earth, and they deserved a chance to say goodbye.

Not to mention, Urahara had told her that the Visored wanted more training time before he left.

That was how the group found themselves approaching Urahara's shop for the second time that day. A cloud had seemed to settle over them, and Rukia hated the fact that she couldn't do anything about it. Here everyone had met their long-lost friend, and now they wouldn't be able to see him again for an indefinite amount of time. She wanted to give them as much time as she could, a task which became increasingly harder with Akio hurrying them along.

"Can we not go faster?" he asked for what seemed like the hundredth time. He'd spent the trip at point guard, and seemed to jump at just about anything.

"We're almost there!" Rukia growled back, her patience wearing thin.

He turned and for the first time since they'd met, stood calmly, looking at her. "You, like every other person I have met, do not seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation."

"You," Ishida commented before Rukia could respond, "have yet to provide proof that there _is_ a situation."

Rukia gaped at Ishida. Had he just stood up for her? Wasn't he still angry at her? But if he was, the Ishida she knew wouldn't have even talked to her for...well, a long time. Either the Quincy had lightened up, or he _really_ did not like this guy. Probably a little bit of both, Rukia concluded with a shake of her head.

The man's look did not change as he regarded the Quincy, although a hard edge crept into his voice as he replied to Ishida's comment. "The mere possibility should—" He suddenly cut off as a greenish blur blew past him.

"Ichigo!" a soft-toned, but high-pitched voice with a slight lisp shrieked out. Before Akio, Rukia or anyone else could even draw their sword, the blur had swooped past Ichigo and coincidentally over Arisawa, who landed hard on the ground with an 'oof'.

"What the--," she started, then looked back to where everyone else now stared. Rukia relaxed slightly, but couldn't help her hand coming to her forehead to massage the bridge of her nose. Behind where Arisawa sat on the ground stood a tall woman with endowments easily as ample as Matsumoto, hugging a struggling Ichigo tightly.

"I'm so glad! I'm so glad you're alive!" she gushed as she squeezed him against the white t-shirt she wore, which did little to hide her assets.

"Neliel-sama!"

"Neliel-sama, doncha know!"

"Oh please, no..." Ishida muttered from beside Rukia. For the first time since she'd met the Quincy, she felt the two of them were on the same page.

Arisawa stood up, looking quite angry. "Now just a minute! Who do you think you--"

"Oh!" the green-haired woman turned around and acknowledged the group for the first time, all the while never letting go of Ichigo. "You must be Ichigo's friend! It's so nice to meet you!"

"Nell-san," Orihime said as she stepped forward, distress in her voice, "I think you're hurting Kurosaki-kun!"

Neliel blinked at her for a moment, and then held Ichigo out, slightly away from her. "Sorry, Ichigo, but it's just so good to see you!" she said, her face still covered in a very innocent smile.

Ichigo coughed and gasped for breath. //_Well,_\\ Rukia thought, _//now he knows how Captain Hitsugaya feels..._\\

"Nell?" Arisawa asked, blinking in confusion. "But she doesn't look like you described at all..."

"Yeah," Ichigo muttered, scowling (and looking very much like the old Ichigo), "shouldn't you be small, like me?"

Neliel's eyes lightened up in an even brighter smile and that quickly, Ichigo found himself being squeezed back into her chest again. "You remember me! You remember me!"

"It's nice to see you again, Ishida-kun, doncha know," the larger of the two attendants yelled to Ishida as he tried to tackle-glomp the Quincy. Despite the fact that he looked about as sick as when he'd eaten Orihime's food earlier, Ishida dodged easily, causing the larger arrancar to face-plant.

"Since we're pals and all, Pencil," Pesche came up on the other side of the dark-haired man and draped an arm around his shoulder, "you really should stay in touch."

Ishida didn't say anything, but Rukia couldn't remember ever seeing him look quite so depressed, annoyed or desperate.

"You're both hollows!" a sudden voice exclaiming brought everyone's eyes to Akio-san, who had his sword drawn. He glared around at the group.

"Arrancar, doncha know!" Dondochakka clarified.

"What's going on? Why are you with this woman?"

At his surprise, Rukia took another glance at the former Espada, and realized that not only was she wearing modern, casual clothes, but Rukia could not see a mask at all. Mentally berating herself for her lack of observation, the captain stepped forward.

"Neliel-san," she said slowly, "is that a gigai?"

Neliel, who had been watching the Royal Court person warily, turned her attention to Rukia. "Yes. Urahara-san made it for me. Do you like it?"

"But Neliel-sama looks strange without her mask!" Pesche butted in.

Akio-san's eyes widened even more. "_You're_ an Arrancar?"

"Yes," Neliel replied with a nod, not noticing how Ichigo looked helplessly at Rukia from her arms. Well, at least he could breathe. "Ichigo helped me when he went to Hueco Mundo, and Orihime-san healed my damaged mask after the war. Since then I've been--"

"Neliel-san," Rukia cut in. No need to tell the man more than necessary after all, "What are you doing here?"

Again, almost immediately she turned her attention back to Rukia. "Urahara-san asked me to come," she answered. "He told me about Ichigo and thought I could help."

Rukia felt her gaze darken slightly at that and she shot a look in the shop's direction. Urahara, who had come out to stand on the porch, shrugged at her. Great. That was all they needed, a reunion when everyone was already so high-strung and stressed.

"How did he think you could help Kurosaki-kun?" Orihime voiced quietly.

"Well," Neliel's smile came back full force, "Ichigo is now like I used to be."

For several seconds the group stared at her. Then, slowly, realization began to dawn over all of their faces, with the exception of Akio-san and Arisawa.

"I would like an explanation, if it wouldn't be too much trouble" Akio-san growled, his face showing true emotion for the first time that Rukia could remember. She couldn't help but sigh a little. This would take forever.

"Well," Urahara grinned as he walked up to the group, hiding behind his fan again. "Why not let me explain while Neliel-san and Ichigo catch up." Before the auburn haired man could say anything, the shopkeeper turned with a flourish of his robe and walked back to the building.

Sending a disapproving glare after him, and then back at the group, Akio-san reluctantly sheathed his sword and started after the other man, leaving everyone to follow.

"Um," Rukia heard Ichigo speak up, "could you please let me down now?" The captain couldn't help it. She laughed. Some things were just too much to not acknowledge.

xXx

"Despite our best efforts, he got to him first," the fourth voice observed with a sort of sad finality. They sat in their gigai on a wall in front of some small-time stores a few blocks away from Urahara's Shop.

"Well, he did before," Soul said, sounding rather downtrodden himself. "Guess we should have expected it."

Hollow cut in, his voice ringing with exasperation. "I thought we were here to change everything. That's what all you guys want, isn't it?'

"What about you?"

Hollow shrugged their shoulders. "Don't care."

"Bull," Human responded. Hollow didn't acknowledge him with anything more than a glare, so the Fourth voice spoke again.

"We will have to wait to approach the Ex-captain until after _he_ leaves."

"Duh," the hollow and human voices said at the same time, then mentally shot more glares at each other.

"So what do we do in the mean time?" Soul asked.

"We prepare," the Fourth voice concluded. "And we train."

Human raised one eyebrow wryly. "That's always your answer to everything, isn't it Old Man?"

The other remained quiet for a few moments before shrugging nonchalantly. " Shall we?"

"Where?" the soul voice asked.

"We will find a place," the Fourth voice responded as their body stood. "Let us go."


	16. Back at Urahara's

Ichigo sat in one of the back rooms of Urahara's shop and watched as the woman across from him downed another bowl of rice in her child-like, but still strangely polite manner. One of the mod-souls (Rinrin, if he remembered right) had already brought in and taken out three other servings, and they hadn't been small bowls either.

"Neliel always forgets how hungry she gets here," the woman said through a mouth of rice and chicken.

Ichigo cocked his head. "Do you always talk about yourself like you're talking about someone else?"

The arrancar paused and shot him a rice-covered grin. "Not always."

The orange-haired boy sat forward, setting his face on his palm and leaning on the wooden table. "You're not like I imagined."

Neliel set the bowl down on the table with a slight thump, her face falling. "So you really don't remember me, Ichigo?"

Ichigo shook his head, causing the woman to sigh.

"I see."

"And you used to be like me?" Ichigo asked hesitantly.

Neliel looked up and smiled. "Well, I looked like I was the age of about five by human standards when I first met you."

Ichigo cocked his head again. "I thought Arrancar didn't age."

Neliel smiled. "We don't. Not like humans in any case. You see, I became like that when Noitra broke my mask. Riatsu leaked out from the wound which caused my body to change. I had less Riatsu at my disposal, so my body became smaller to accommodate that."

"And 'Hime-san healed it?"

"Yep!" Neliel let out a huge grin. "Was really nice of her, too."

"Why?" Ichigo asked.

"Well I would have thought that the captains wouldn't let her because I was originally hollow, and Shinigami and hollow are enemies."

Ichigo frowned for a minute. He'd already asked similar questions of Rukia and other shinigami, as well as his own inner hollow and the Visored, but it still seemed like a foreign concept to him. Maybe she could explain it better. "Why?"

Neliel giggled a little (a sound that disturbed Ichigo greatly for some reason). "You're cuter like this, you know that, Ichigo?"

"I'm _not_ cute!" Ichigo demanded, scowling and hitting his fist firmly on the table, which only caused her to chuckle more. It took her a few seconds to calm down enough to speak.

"Hollows eat souls and shinigami. It's one of their most basic instincts. Kill and make yourself stronger or be killed," Neliel answered his previous question, still smirking at his outburst.

Ichigo frowned a bit. "Not all hollows are like that."

"I haven't met an actual hollow who isn't," Neliel shrugged and placed her hand on the half-filled cup she'd set behind the empty bowl. "Arrancar rise above that, but we're still hollows. We still have to eat sometimes, especially when we're not in Hueco Mundo, and Shinigami try to save souls from being eaten."

The boy started at her, horrified. "You eat people?!"

Neliel almost spit out her drink. Apparently his reaction was just too cute and priceless. "No," she said, giggling again, causing Ichigo to shiver. "That was part of the deal the shinigami made with me that allowed me and Pesche and Dondachekka to stay in Hueco Mundo, but I wouldn't anyway. Like I said, Arrancar rise above that."

"Oh," Ichigo muttered. "So, you lost all your memories when you were little?"

Neliel nodded. "Yes, although I think a lot of that was because I didn't want to remember."

Ichigo's raised his eyebrows, taken aback. "You didn't?"

"They weren't very happy memories, except for the times when I was with Dondochakka and Pesche," she shrugged. "So I didn't want to remember them."

"Did they hurt you?" he asked softly.

Neliel looked up, surprised. "Dondochakka and Pesche? Why would they?"

"No," Ichigo blurted, then looked away, unable to ask while looking at her. "I mean, the memories. Did they hurt?"

The woman regarded him for several seconds before answering. "Some of them," she said.

"Then why did you want them back?" Ichigo heard himself asking suddenly, wondering where the venom in his voice had come from.

Neliel smiled, although she looked far more sad than she did happy. "Because our memories make us who we are. Besides, I could never be my strongest if I didn't have all my memories."

Ichigo folded his arms stubbornly. "I don't want to remember," he insisted. "It hurts too much."

"That's what friends are for," Neliel responded. "People are always strongest when they're with or protecting people they care about. Sometimes it hurts to be strong enough to fight for them, but it's because of them we can keep going. It's part of being strong."

"Is that why you put up with Don-check and Pess?"

Neliel grinned. "Absolutely. How could I otherwise?"

Ichigo couldn't help the smile that came to his lips.

xXx

"Relax, Akio-san," Urahara-san said as he waved his fan at the nervous figure, "we're all safe here."

Akio shot him a glare and continued to pace through the front of the shop. Having had the presence of the three arrancar explained to him (he was _not_ happy with that situation at all), he now had to wait for everyone else to finish their ridiculously long goodbyes, and apparently the kid's family hadn't even shown up yet.

Why? Why couldn't anyone seem to grasp the situation? Would they have to see the Unmaker destroy everything they held dear before they realized that action was necessary now?

"How long?" he asked finally.

Urahara looked up at him questioningly. "How long what?"

"How long until I can take him back?" he growled. The shopkeeper had known exactly what he'd asked.

"You musn't rush these things," the blond man grinned back.

"Why not?!"

"Because you'll make yourself sick," Urahara pointed out. "His family is coming by this evening, and that will not change. It took me quite a while to convince them not to rush over immediately. Then the Visored have an agreement to--"

"Don't you get it?" Akio couldn't help himself. He'd been through far too many politics and problems that wore on his patience. "Every second we delay is one second closer to the world's destruction! You cannot comprehend what the Unmaker is like!"

Urahara studied him for several moments. "Then tell me," he said with a shrug.

Akio blinked. "What?"

"Tell me what you know about yourself, and this 'Unmaker'."

The auburn-haired man snorted. "You couldn't possibly comprehend--"

_Snap. _Akio stopped at the loud noise and glanced back at Urahara. The man had closed his fan, the obvious source of the sharp sound, and although he continued to smile, his eyes held a dangerous challenge to them.

"Try me."

Akio eyed him suspiciously. Really, how many people outside of the Royal Court could truly understand? But something told him, this man was one of those few who would. After several moments in a heavy silence, Akio shrugged and sat down across from the man, near the back door.

Many more moments of silence passed as Akio contemplated his words. Finally he glanced, a little sheepishly, up at the man. "I don't really know where to start."

"Who is this 'Unmaker'?" Urahara responded immediately.

Akio sighed, slumping against the wooden walls behind him. Doing so made him feel like he had sinned gravely, but at the moment he didn't really care. This wasn't the royal court, so he could slouch all he wanted.

"Truthfully, I don't really know."

Urahara raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh?"

"I remember only snatches from my past. What I know to be true stem from the following facts: I am from the future. I do not know how far in the future, but I do know my home is there." He held up one finger for that fact, and then another to signify the next.

"I know that I lived in the Royal Court, although only recently have I even discovered my name. I did not even know that a week ago. I do not know why no one recognizes me, or what rank I held. I do not even know my family name. All I do know, is that what few memories I do have of my past correspond with the area in and around the Royal Court."

He held up a third finger. "I know that I helped to banish the Unmaker to the Void before he completely destroyed this dimension, unraveling time at the very seam. That is the power he holds within him. I do not know if I too was banished, or if I merely became caught in the procedure, but for whatever reason, myself, the Unmaker, and one other person all came to the void from the same chronology point."

For the first time since Akio had begun his discussion, Urahara held up his hand. "What is 'the Void'?"

Akio blinked at him for several seconds. He did not even know that? Perhaps this was a waste of time after all. Still, it seemed that that was all everyone wanted to do at this point. It wasn't like he had anything better to do either.

With a sigh, he ran his hands through his hair. "Time, as we know it, must exist on its own, fourth-dimensional plain. There are other, alternate realities that exist as well, but they do not—cannot—interact without a great force pushing them to do so.

"If it were a three-dimensional plain, then the void is to the universe as time is to Earth," he looked up, hoping the man before him at least grasped some of the concept he seemed to be having such a difficult time conveying.

"Earth exists in the universe on its own natural course. Our dimension exists in the void on a similar course," Urahara nodded, signifying that he understood.

Akio couldn't help but let a smile touch his lips. He honestly hadn't thought the shopkeeper would be able to keep up. This was the first time he'd discussed any of this with anyone in depth. The Royal Court hadn't been that interested in his mental state as long as his information was true.

"Correct," Akio nodded, sitting up a little straighter. "The Void in and of itself only has one major definition: space and time do not exist for it there."

"What do you mean?" Urahara asked.

"The Void is just that: a lack of time. Anything that exists within it that is not connected to a time-stream becomes the Void. Because space is not, existence should not be possible, but sometimes a linear being is thrown from its time stream into the void. It then exists as the void, only separated because it cannot comprehend anything that doesn't have a cause and effect.

"Because a human or soul mind cannot comprehend the void, it forces itself into a state similar to what it knows."

Urahara tapped his fan against his chin. "Kind of like borrowed, or perceived time. Even though time does not exist, the mind forces a time-stream into being, even if only inside that mind. So it seems, to them, as if time is passing, though it really isn't, because there is no time. "

"Exactly," Akio nodded, now thoroughly delighted that Urahara could keep pace. "And that brings me to my fourth fact: I know I existed in the void, and I know the Unmaker did as well. His mind is four beings. Mine is only two, with my Zanpaktou. His mind is also very powerful. He naturally became the prominent being through sheer force alone.

"Can you even begin to comprehend what it is like to have the root of your very being smothered by another? There was no time, yet we existed. There was no space, yet we existed. I am not sure he didn't drive me mad."

Urahara cocked his head at the other man. "And the Royal Court believed you?"

"Not particularly," Akio muttered. "They professed to if only for the reason that with the knowledge of time I possessed coupled with a logical argument, they couldn't outright deny the possibility. I had to fight them every step of the way, and even after weeks of that they only granted me three small victories."

"And they were?"

"First, warn the boy. They sent a messenger to warn him of the oncoming danger."

"And how did you know Unmaker was after Ichigo?"

Akio reached a hand up and scratched his head softly, concentrating on again finding the right words. "While in the Void, there is no physical at all, only the mental, and then there are no boundaries. I could hear his thoughts just as he could hear mine. The name 'Kurosaki Ichigo' was...a very prominent thought, and I got the distinct impression that he was a major nuisance and problem.

"They wanted to go back to a point in time where they could change his future and keep him from gaining power. I couldn't sort out the exact reason or circumstances, but I got a general time, and have already met him here." He looked up at Urahara, his face utterly serious, with just the tiniest tinge of fear in his eyes. "I can only assume that he is trying to stop that boy from gaining the power necessary to stop him."

Something struck Urahara as a little off with the story. It was obvious that Akio wasn't lying. He was far to open of an individual, even if he could school his expressions very well. But still, Urahara very suddenly wanted to speak to this 'Unmaker'.

"How do you know their goal is to destroy the world?"

Akio gave him a look that blatantly stated 'why ask such a stupid question?', but he humored the ex-captain. "The third person that came to the void with us...I have no idea who he was, but I know he was a shinigami. His main thought rotated around how much power the Unmaker had given off, and that it shouldn't have happened. He had calculated a rough estimate of how much damage that power had done, and at best the entire Soul Society and a good portion of the Rukongai was destroyed, as well as any sections of Earth and Hueco Mundo that had lingering traces of inter-dimensional paths.

"When I say 'destroyed', I don't mean a blast that leveled or even obliterated, leaving extremely damaged land in its wake. No, he unleashed so much sheer, concentrated power that it began to unravel the very fabric of time itself. It literally removed that entire part of the world from existence."

xXx

For the first time in decades, maybe even centuries, Urahara found himself utterly horrified and speechless. He could only stare at Akio, almost begging his own mind to begin working again, despite the shock. He'd never even contemplated anything that really came close to that kind of destruction. At one point he had come across a few ideas that would dissolve a soul, a human or a hollow, destroying them at the molecular level, but to erase it from ever really having existed...

It almost felt as if he had suddenly been thrust onto a whole new level of thought, and he became acutely aware that his own thoughts and beliefs had suddenly been shaken from centuries of stability. While his mind reeled, Akio continued as if discussing nothing more than a particularly bad storm.

"The Unmaker had just as ready access to those thoughts as I did, and while I can't say 'after he heard them', I can say in reference to those calculations and thoughts, I got the distinct impression that his—or one of their, in this particular instance—reaction to that was a sort of interested glee. He felt it was an exciting accomplishment.

"The other three voices coming from his entity had different reactions. Two of them felt a little sorry. One of those two didn't seem to particularly care, remaining more focused on their current state. The second felt a little sorry, and then just moved on as if nothing had happened. The last of the voices was almost as horrified as I had been at the news, but he was also the newest persona created before entering the void. He had no real control over anything that happened.

He shook his head, eyes hardening in determination. "I don't care which of the three other persona was in charge before they were banished to the Void. If the first was, then obviously he cannot be left alone. If either of the other two are...anyone who has that kind of power cannot simply walk about without caring about consequences. Doing so goes beyond reckless, and they must be stopped."

The conversation lapsed for a few moments before Akio looked up at the ex-shingami. "Do you understand now why I am so determined to protect that boy? I will do what I can to mend the broken time stream."

Urahara continued to stare at him with an expression that could have been carved from stone for all the emotion it showed. Finally he leaned forward.

"Akio-san," he said slowly. "How is it that you can remember all of that and yet you could not seem to remember your name?"

Taken slightly aback at his question, Akio stuttered a response. "I-I would hypothesize that it was because of my own thoughts at the time, both in reference to the others' thoughts as well as what was on my mind the moment I became trapped in the Void."

Urahara nodded, looking impressed. "It could also be that only certain parts of your memory are affected by the Void, which also leads to some rather interesting hypothesis." It was Akio's turn to cock his head questioningly.

A slight smile tugged at Urahara's lips. "Let me tell you how memory works..." *

xXx

Orihime walked through the doorway, bowing politely with a muttered apology at interrupting Ichigo and Neliel's conversation (if one could call it a conversation, as they both seemed to be chasing each other around the room while yelling and giggling randomly...it looked more like a game of tag).

At her appearance, both figures stopped, looking at her. She couldn't help but feel a little flushed under their mild scrutiny.

"Ano," she started, " Kurosaki-kun's family is here to see him." She grinned happily down at the little boy, who looked so adorable to her.

To her surprise, Ichigo's bright eyes died down and he looked away. Almost immediately, both she and Neliel noticed the sudden change in his countenance and exchanged a worried glance. "I don't want to see them," Ichigo muttered, refusing to meet her eyes.

Orihime blinked in surprise. "W-why not?" she couldn't help but ask. If any of her family or friends showed up to make sure she was alright, she definitely would not reject them. The very thought seemed outright foreign to her.

"I just don't," Ichigo muttered, shuffling back over to sit at the table in the center of the room. "Tell them to go away."

The light-haired woman couldn't help but blink in confusion, and then she fell back into the old habit of rambling when uncomfortable. "But they're so worried about you and they came all the way here to see you and it would be rude to make them go away and they also brought you dinner that Yuzu-chan cooked so you should--"

"NO!" Ichigo yelled suddenly. "I won't see them! I won't!"

Both of the woman took a step back, eyes widening at his outburst. Finally, Orihime spoke up, shakily. "R-right," she managed to get out as her eyes switched with amazing speed between Neliel and Ichigo uncertainly. "I-I'll g-g-go let them know."

She turned to rush out of the room, only to run into Ishida. She didn't know how long he'd been standing there (when she'd entered the room, no one had been in the hall), but his presence both startled her and calmed her down.

With a reassuring glance in her direction, the Quincy brushed past the light-haired woman, standing unforgivably over Ichigo.

"Are you really going to do that?" he asked, his voice radiating ice. "You're just going to hide and pretend it never happened?"

"Shut up," Ichigo muttered, bringing his knees up to his chest and wrapping his arms around them.

Ishida shrugged. "Fine, I will. I wouldn't want to talk to a brat as selfish as you anyway."

"Say that again?!" the orange-haired boy shot up, his voice sounding suddenly older. Then he seemed to realize what he was doing and immediately sat down again, putting his hands over his head.

"The Kurosaki Ichigo I knew would never run away," Ishida said, his voice growing even harder.

"I don't care!" Ichigo shot back. "I'm not him!" Orihime gasped, and Ishida's eyes narrowed. "I don't want his memories and I don't want to be him! Okay?!"

He sat there, panting slightly and looking a little panicked. Then Neliel moved forward, losing her childish aspect almost completely and sending the boy a gentle stare.

"Ichigo," she said softly, "remember what I said about friends?" The boy blinked and looked up at her, confused.

"They make you stronger, right?"

"Only if you let them," she nodded, still speaking soothingly.

"What do you mean?"

She smiled sadly. "Friends and family are there to support each other. But just being that close will bring out faults and problems each person has. If you don't face your fears and weaknesses regarding them, you only become weaker."

He got her point. Orihime could see it in the way his face paled.

"I-I don't want to," he said, his voice cracking.

"Kurosaki-kun," the human woman spoke up softly. "It's hard for you, so we'll all be there for you. All of us."

Ichigo glanced up at her, shaking slightly. It made her want to cry. The Ichigo she knew would never shake or show this kind of weakness. //But,\\ she reminded herself, //that doesn't mean he didn't have them. I just couldn't see them.\\ The thought depressed her somewhat, but she refused to let it show. Ichigo had been strong for her, so now she would be strong for hm.

"Even him?" he muttered in an extremely skeptical voice, nodding towards Ishida.

The Quincy's expression didn't change. "I'll be there, if only to kick your butt when you start acting pathetic again."

Icigho's scowl returned, and he muttered under his breath, something which made Neliel again and glance over at the dark-haired man.

"Alright," he conceded finally. "I'll go and see my—his family, but I still don't want to."

Ishida sighed, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Remember this: you just regained the memory pertaining to the loss of your mother," Ichigo and Orihime both flinched at his bluntness. "But realize that your sisters lost their mother and their older brother. Now they've gotten him back, and they're about to lose him again. Would you be cruel enough to leave without wishing them farewell?"

"In other words," Ichigo muttered, "stop being an idiot. You sound like Shiro."

"Kurosaki-kun," Orihime inquired, "who is Shiro?"

Ichigo didn't look at her for a few moments, then shrugged his shoulders and walked outside.

"K-kurosaki-kun!" she blinked and dashed out the door after him.

Ishida watched him warily, then exchanged a glance with Neliel, who only shrugged at him and grinned with her rather unique smile. Feeling slightly uneasy, Ishida followed the other two, and was in turn followed by the Arrancar, leaving the room empty.

xXx

"Ichigo!" no sooner had Ichigo stepped through the door to the front of the shop, then he found himself bombarded and rather harshly glomped by someone for the second time that day. For the barest moment, he considered dodging (they only moved at a human pace), but ultimately decided against it and braced himself. "We're so glad you're safe! We were so worried about you!"

He wished he could sigh as she continued to maul him, but settled for nodding slowly. Then, abruptly she pushed him back at arms length and looked him in the eye with a stern look. "Don't you EVER do that again, you hear? Never! Do you understand?" She paused expectantly, and Ichigo couldn't help but feel more than a little guilty.

In her brown eyes, he could actually see the pain and helpless worry he'd caused her. It didn't help the heavy burden that seemed to have landed on his heart.

//Ichigo,\\ he heard Shiro growl, //It's raining again.\\

Blinking, he forced a smile. "Yeah, I understand. I'm sorry," he managed to get out.

//Pretending doesn't help us in here, idiot! I thought you promised us you'd never get sad again.\\ Yeah, that didn't help with the guilt at all.

Yuzu returned his gaze before she too smiled and drew him into a hug. Just for a moment, he saw a flash again, and Yuzu had turned into his Mother. She looked enough like her that briefly and vaguely Ichigo wondered how he hadn't seen it before.

Then the memory faded with another flash, and he couldn't help himself.

"NO!" he yelled, shoving her back and squatting down with his hands over his head. He thought he heard several people call his name, but couldn't hear very well over his heavy breathing.

//See why you should have listened to me to begin with?\\ Shiro asked, sounding a little haughty and smug, but also annoyed and...was that concern?

//Hollows don't GET concerned,\\ he snapped and stalked off through the mist and rain that had taken over Ichigo's inner world. //Better get the rain to stop soon, or you'll make Zangetsu miserable, and then it's harder to fight.\\

//I can't do this!\\ Ichigo practically yelled at him.

At that, Shiro turned and shot a glare at him. //You're the one that wanted to find out your past. You're the one that decided that idiot was amazing enough. You're the one that's gotta fix it.\\

//BUT I CAN'T!\\ Ichigo screamed.

Shiro regarded him with a disgusted look on his face before turning and walking away again. //Then I guess I was wrong. You are weaker than that idiot.\\

"Ichigo!" he felt a hand on his shoulder, and jumped back a little, looking around at the people who had gathered. Ishida, Chad, Neliel and Orihime all knelt by him, and he couldn't help but gawk at them as if he couldn't process their presences.

"Are you alright?" Chad asked, never moving his hand from Ichigo's arm.

Numbly he nodded, forcing himself to move and think again. Then he caught a glance of the scene unfolding behind them. Yuzu cried into her father's shoulder while Karin stroked her back and spoke soothingly. He could tell they were purposefully avoiding looking at him. As soon as his eyes fell on them, a wave of regret washed over him.

_Flash _

"_Ichi-nii..." Ichigo looked up at the breathless sound of his name coming from the direction of his bedroom door. He'd just returned from the meeting with the soul society when that...the Sou-taichou had forbade him to rescue Inoue. _

_Having come back home, and had no reason to continue sleeping and healing, he'd simply gotten back into his body when Yuzu opened the door. _

"_Yuzu," he said, trying not to sound like he'd just been caught. _

"_Ichi-nii!" Yuzu cried out, tears springing to her eyes as she lunged forward, wrapping her hands around his waist. "You're alright! You're alright! I-I...just...you were so hurt! Ichi-nii, I was so scared..."_

_Flash _

He wanted to reject the memory; pretend they never existed. But the problem was, he also wanted, more than anything else at the moment, to comfort that little girl.

For the barest second, he felt an argument rise in his mind, one that for once had nothing to do with his hollow or his sword. The worried glance from Karin cinched it.

Steeling himself for the upcoming event, he nodded reassuringly to the people surrounding him, then moved past them and approached the small family. Isshin and Karin watched him warily. He doubted Yuzu knew he'd come towards them at all until he spoke.

"Um..." he said softly, "I...I don't know what to say..." Yuzu paused in her sobbing for a few moments to turn around and watch him with puffy, red eyes. "Except that, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for hurting your feelings," he bowed to Yuzu. "And I'm sorry to all of you but...I'm not Ichigo. Maybe I was...but I'm not now.

"But," he put in quickly, before anyone could object and trying to ignore the hurt shock on their faces, "I was kind of hoping that you wouldn't mind being my sisters anyway."

"Oh, Ichigo!" Yuzu burst out, rushing over to him and throwing her arms around him, now sobbing into his shoulder.

"I guess that's a yes," Karin muttered, although she never lost her expression of sadness and pain. Ichigo tried not to think about it. Isshin, for once, looked on with an unreadable expression.

Just then, a door opened and Ichigo heard Urahara's voice, although he couldn't turn around and look at the man due to Yuzu. "Now that that's all settled, how about we all come in and have a nice, long talk!

//Oh yeah,\\ Shiro scoffed at the man. //Like this isn't gonna be awkward.\\


	17. Cannot Seem To Agree

I know it's kind of clishe, but I had writer's block pretty badly. Hope all my deliberation pays off. My most sincere apologies!

xXx

The room fell into silence after Urahara finished his summary of Akio's explanation. Okay, maybe "summary" was too generous of a word. He'd barely said that Akio had valid worries and they needed to address the situation as soon as possible before informing him that the Royal Court Representative was also from the future.

Hence the silence.

"This guy destroys everything in the future, and he's after me?" Ichigo asked, looking more than a little shocked. "Is it 'cause I got rid of that one bad guy way back during the war you guys are always telling me about?"

"We don't know why," Urahara said, bending down and grinning one of his rare reassuring smiles at Ichigo. "But that's our best guess."

"Wait," Rukia-taichou spoke up, and glaring warily over at Akio, "If you're from the future, why can't you remember anything?"

Urahara spoke up before the future soul could. "It has to do with how he traveled into the past."

"Time travel erases your memories?" Ishida spoke up, sounding both shocked and thoroughly interested, hardly making an effort to hide it.

"In some cases, yes," Urahara shrugged. "Apparently this 'Unmaker' has most if not all of his memories intact."

"Of course," Karin grumbled.

Yuzu sighed. "This means that you're taking Nii-s—er, I mean Ichigo-chan," she paused as if those words were particularly difficult to say.

Noting her sister's problem, Karin put a hand on her shoulder and smiled reassuringly. Yuzu returned the smile to acknowledge her sister's efforts, but then continued, unable to completely hide the pain behind her words. "You're taking him to the Soul Society for good," her voice dropped to barely audible, "doesn't it." She said the question as more of a statement, looking sadder and sadder with each syllable.

"For an indefinite amount of time," Akio replied callously. "Yes."

Another uncomfortable silence fell over the room.

"What about the Visored?" Rukia asked calmly. "What do they think of this?"

Urahara shrugged, and moved his fan in front of his face again, smiling at everyone with his eyes. "They haven't showed up yet."

"Do you know when they will?" This one came from Isshin, his voice dropping into a quiet tone that seemed uncharacteristic from what Akio had seen of the man.

Resident hat-n-clogs shrugged. "Whenever they feel like it."

"Why am I not surprised?" The captain muttered.

"In any case," Urahara continued, "We need to make preparations. Rukia-taichou," he turned to the dark-haired woman, "please inform the Soul Society at the soonest possible time."

She raised an eyebrow slightly. "Shouldn't you inform them?"

His fan had suddenly flashed out in front of his face. "I still don't think they trust me."

//I wonder why,\\ Akio thought. The man was eccentric, but otherwise harmless as far as he could tell. Not for the first time, he wondered if he were a good judge in character as the ex-captain continued.

"It would mean more coming from you."

She still didn't seem completely convinced, but nodded.

"As for Ichigo-san," he started, then paused. It was the subtlest movement, a relaxing muscle here, and a tensing muscle there, barely perceptible, but Akio saw it. Apparently so did dark-haired human with glasses and the kid, as all three of them looked over at the door just as someone crashed through it and straight into Urahara's face.

"Stupid Baldy!"

Ichigo's face fell. There were even more people behind her, one of them (obviously their leader of sorts) being a man with a bowl-shaped haircut and a creepy smile.

"You must be Hirako-san," Akio stood up. "Good. We need to leave as soon as possible, but Urahara-san here insisted we wait and let yo--"

"Who are you?" Hirako interrupted, looking thoroughly unimpressed.

"I was just about to ask that, Baldy!" the blond girl growled from the floor where she knelt on Urahara's chest.

The blond Visored ignored her, instead choosing to keep his studying gaze on the auburn-haired man before him.

"My name is Akio. I represent the royal court."

"Really?" Hirako asked, sounding both bored and skeptical.

"Actually, he does," Rukia muttered.

Hirako glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. Then he shrugged. "Whatever. I don't really care as long as he doesn't interfere with our agreement with the little captain over there," he pointed to Rukia, who said nothing as she sipped her tea, but a large vein did appear on her forehead. "Ichigo gets to train with us for two days." He glanced down at the orange-haired boy. "Come on, kid."

Ichigo went to protest, but saw the look from the fifth-squad captain and sighed, standing up.

"Wait!" Akio said. "He needs to return to the Soul Society so we can protect him! Immediately!"

Hirako paused, turning at the door. "I'm not surprised the Soul Society's goin' back on their word."

"He does not speak for the Soul Society," a smooth, female voice spoke from the Visored, originating from a woman with her long, black hair tied back in a braid.

"Point," Hirako acknowledged. "Come on, Ichigo," he smiled down at the boy. It seemed to do nothing to brighten Ichigo's spirits. Akio concurred. He had a rather—no, very—creepy smile.

"You don't understand...!" Akio started, but stopped when Urahara held out the fan in front of the Royal Court member.

The last one to leave, the blond one who had kicked Urahara so rudely, turned and glared at him, her fanged smile turning somewhat mischievous. "From the Royal Court, eh?" she asked. "Bet you don't even know who it is you're supposed to be guarding, do you?" With that, she turned the corner, calling out to him without facing him. "If you want to know, come watch."

Akio steamed as he watched the doorway empty. More stupid idiots that didn't understand just how important this was.

Beside him, the shopkeeper spoke up. "She never changes," he muttered. Then he turned to Akio. "How about I talk to them, Akio-san," he grinned. "I'll see if I can get them to reconsider."

Akio tried not to look too grateful.

"Thank you." He missed the mischievous gleam in the ex-shinigami's eye.

xXx

"Hirako-san," Ichigo muttered under his breath, "why did you bring everyone this time?" He looked around, feeling slightly uncomfortable. It wasn't that he didn't like the Visored, but there was something about them that really bugged him.

//More than one thing,\\ Shiro grumbled in his mind.

"Why wouldn't we all come?" the blond asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ichigo shrugged, looking away, rubbing the back of his head slowly. "You all didn't come last time."

"Berry-tan doesn't think we care!" Mashiro said suddenly, a look of shock and horror on her face.

"We don't," Lisa muttered, walking by and not taking her eyes off of her book (which Rukia-taichou had insisted she cover).

"Lisa-chan! You're so mean!" the green-haired Visored said, throwing a miniature (for her) tantrum.

They reached the approximate center of Urahara's training ground, everyone grabbing various seats and settling in to watch. Ichigo glanced over at his 'friends' and 'family', who had all decided to stay the night. He actually wondered how they'd talked Urahara into that. That guy wasn't the type of person to...

His thought process faded off as he realized that that particular train of thought wasn't really his. It had come from his other self's memories. Gulping, he shook the thought out of his head, forcing his mind to focus on the people in front of him. Surprisingly, Hirako was the one who took his sword out and pointed it at Ichigo. Despite their sparring session the previous time, Ichigo had never seen Hirako fight when other Visoreds were around except at the final...war...

His frustration began to rise several notches. He'd done it again! Why was it that now, when he _didn't_ want the memories they came practically every moment?

Grasping the hilt of Zangetsu firmly, he took a ready stance, making sure it was one they'd taught him at least fairly recently. It didn't feel as natural as his original stance, but he didn't care. It wasn't really _his_ original stance.

"Alright," Hirako grinned, glancing out of the corner of his eye at the man named Akio. "Mask on."

Ichigo nodded and complied.

Then the fight began.

xXx

"What...is..._that!_" Akio exclaimed as the two Visored began their training match.

"That," Urahara said, coming up behind him, "is Kurosaki Ichigo."

"It's a hollow's riatsu!"

The shopkeeper didn't even bother to turn and look at him. "So you didn't know who you were guarding. Is this a problem?"

Akio continued to stare in shock as the fight continued, people yelling out various tips and points (or screaming in some cases) for the boy to follow. At least, those who could see the fight called out to him. They moved so quickly Akio barely saw their blurs.

He'd have to slow down time if he wanted to...

That thought caused him to trail off. Could he slow down time? As mind blowing as that thought was, it seemed like a familiar concept. Perhaps that was his specialty? Wouldn't surprise him, seeing as most people in the Royal Court had powers that at least related to time. They found the odd person that didn't, but that was rare.

One more clue to his past.

He pulled himself out of his thoughts and looked hard at the ex-shinigami. "As long as he can help to defeat the Unmaker, I don't care."

"Excellent," Urahara grinned and finally turned to face him, smiling at him with his eyes. "Why don't you stay here and watch while everyone trains today? I'll speak to Hirako-san when he and Ichigo take a break, alright?"

Akio nodded as he lowered himself into a sitting position on the large rock to watch a good distance away from the 'action'. Idly, he wondered how he'd gained such a morbid curiosity as to be actually interested in such a fight.

xXx

"Good, Ichigo," Shinji nodded at the boy, a large grin splitting his face. "You've improved."

If Ichigo smiled back, the Visored couldn't see it through the mask. The kid was probably exhausted. They'd come well into their second day of training, straight. He'd refused to do more than take the occasional break since they'd started. Now that he knew someone was after him, and that said person could hurt a lot of people getting to him, he seemed more motivated than ever.

Then again, he wouldn't expect less from Ichigo.

"Nice job, kid," Shinji said as he landed, his own mask dissipating at his will.

"Are you trading out again?" Ichigo asked, moving his mask to the side. A few of the Visored had taken to tag-teaming in their training. Sometimes all of them wold come at Ichigo, sometimes they'd just trade out.

The former captain grinned. "Actually, I just thought we'd take a break." After all, the annoying Kuchiki-captain had finally taken a short break herself upstairs with several other members of Ichigo's family. He may not get another chance at this.

"No!" Ichigo practically growled. "I need to get stronger, now!"

Shinji couldn't help but deadpan. "You never change, do you?"

The scowl on the boy's face returned with full force. He glared at Shinji for several seconds before bringing up his sword to rest on his shoulder.

"Fine," he muttered, stomping by. Was that a tantrum? From Ichigo? Shinji almost let out a snicker. Almost. The carrot-top plopped down on a rock with a force that screamed he was in protest.

Shinji flash stepped to the place they'd set their water bottles down, and grabbed them. Knowing Ichigo, he'd better have a peace offering.

It only took moments to reappear beside the boy and hold the transparent container in front of him. Scowl deepening, Ichigo grabbed the bottle and unscrewed the lid, taking a short drink. Shinji flopped down beside him.

"So, Ichigo, I was wondering," he started, sounding as casual as he could. He was not used to interrogating children. "About the conversation we had last time..."

He didn't think it possible for Ichigo to be any colder towards him. He was wrong. Somehow, just those words sparked him into an even deeper anger. Vaguely, Shinji wondered what he'd done to tick the boy off so drastically. He'd have to proceed carefully. Even earlier that day taking a break wouldn't have elicited this deep of a reaction. Must have been something he said.

"What about it?"

"Eh, not much," Shinji shrugged. Best to put him at ease. "I was just wondering, you know what a shinigmi does, right?"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "Of course I do. I'm not dumb!"

Shinji raised his eyebrow and avoided that opening with no small amount of restraint. "No, you're not. So tell me what they do."

He continued to scowl, but answered none the less. "Rukia-taichou said they purify hollows and send souls to the soul society."

"And you know what a hollow is, right?"

Now the boy started to look bored. "They're souls that have lost their heart."

"So you know they're mortal enemies, right?"

Ichigo didn't answer, looking somewhat confused. "Hollows and Shinigami?"

Shinji nodded absently, taking a drink of water. "Yeah," he said. "That's what makes Visored so feared. We're an abomination, not to be trusted."

The orange-haired boy continued to look displeased and puzzled. "But," he started, "why do we have to be enemies?"

The ex-shinigami raised an eyebrow. "It's in their nature to kill. It's in our nature to protect. Of course we'd be enemies."

Ichigo thought for a moment, still looking defiant. "So if you came across a hollow that wasn't like that, would you just kill them anyway?"

And there was the opening Shinji had been probing for. Suppressing a triumphant, if worried smile, he turned and looked Ichigo in the face. "Ichigo," he said seriously, "All hollows are like that."

"How do you know?" He growled right back.

"Personal experience."

Ichigo's face started to turn red with anger and frustration. "You haven't met every hollow out there!"

"I've met a lot," Shinji countered smoothly. "And I've never once met an exception to the rule."

"What about Nell-chan?" Shinji raised an eyebrow at Ichigo's use of the Arrancar's name. Ichigo had only met her as Neliel. He didn't point it out, not wanting to distract from the current conversation.

The older Visored shrugged. "She's an Arrancar, which means she's gained back her reasoning. However," he interjected before Ichigo could say anything, "I don't think you're talking about every other hollow out there."

That shut him up. Fast. Ichigo snapped his jaw closed and turned to look away, still upset and defiant, but slightly guilty. Shinji pressed on. "You told me you let your hollow speak to you. Why?"

"Why not?" Ichigo shot back, looking more flustered. "He's a part of me. Why shouldn't I listen to what he says?"

"Have you ever considered that it might be hurting you? That it's trying to seem nice on purpose to gain your trust?"

The carrot-top shook his head. "Why would he do that?"

Shinji leaned forward. "Hollows consume, Ichigo. It's in their nature. They consume anything and everything they possibly can. The less resistance, the better."

"That's not true!" Ichigo protested leaning away and looking angrier than ever. "The harder something is, the more you grow when you defeat it!"

"Did your hollow tell you that?"

Ichigo blinked, and looked away again. "No," he said. Shinji didn't believe him for a second.

"Do you listen to it?"

The boy refused to respond at all. By this time, a few others had come around, and were standing casually within hearing distance, but the two ignored them completely.

"Ichigo," Shinji continued quietly, "do you _trust_ it?"

Ichigo scowled up at the blond man, not backing down an inch. "Yes," he said finally, "I do."

xXx

He should have expected the reaction he got. In some small corner of his mind, he did. Shiro practically yelling at him the whole time didn't help much either (//_Idiot! Don't say that! They'll never let you leave! They'll lock you up or something!_\\). He didn't care; backing down in this case was _not_ an option.

Exclamations sounded from the group around him.

Hirako, however, just sat back, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I was afraid of that," he said.

"Why shouldn't I trust him! He's a part of me! He's always looked out for me!"

//Not helping,\\ Shiro muttered.

"Of course it looks out for you, baldy!" Hyori bellowed at him. "If you die, it dies!"

"Shiro's not an 'it'! He's a _him_!"

//_Really_ not helping!\\

"You named it?" Hirako asked before Mugurume butt in.

"_It'll_ kill you, kid," the silver-haired man shot fiercely. "Eventually, it will try to take over and absorb your consciousness!"

Ichigo shook his head in defiance. "No he won't! Why would he?"

"Because that's how hollows gain power; by absorbing other beings," Lisa answered, her voice as cold as ice.

//Ask them why I haven't killed you so far then,\\ Shiro said, a tone of rage touching his thoughts.

"Yeah, why hasn't he killed me already?" Ichigo said.

"Waiting for more power to absorb, waiting for a better moment, or he's been working on you for a while," Hirako answered. "There could be any number of reasons. Maybe you're just stronger than him."

//Psh. Not likely.\\

//Hey!\\ Ichigo shot silently.

"We don't know why," Rose broke in quietly, his voice deadly serious. "And that's one thing we'd like to find out."

"We want you to ask him for us," Lisa said. "Tell us exactly what he says."

That's when it hit Ichigo. He'd been set up. They'd been planning on this kind of a situation the whole time. The thought of him being manipulated like that really irked him. "Look, why don't you just ask him yourself?" He yelled, finally losing his patience. A stunned silence fell over the group.

"No, don't--" Hirako started as he jumped up off of the rock, but stopped as Ichigo's riatsu changed.

"Che," Ichigo's now multiple, high-pitched voice caused all of the Visored to drop into a defensive stance.

For several extremely long seconds, no one dared move, as if anyone breathing too loudly would break some sort of stalemate. "Do you know what it's like?" the boy's voice said again, looking around with his now black and gold eyes. "Having the memories of a 28 year old and being stuck in a child's body? Caffeine can't touch this!"

"Grab him!" Someone yelled. Instantly, he'd shunpoed off into the training grounds, bouncing off of the mountains as the mask began to form across the side of his face. Scrambling to catch up, several Visored gave chase, obviously hoping to subdue him.

"Our specialty is speed, you morons! Just try to catch us!" Shiro yelled, turning around and stepping backwards. Love suddenly appeared behind him, and for just a moment, Ichigo thought they'd caught him, but Shiro just smiled and added a touch of Sonido to his step. He avoided the afro-styling man easily, dancing around Hyori and Mashiro.

After a few minutes of tag, he stopped atop a boulder and turned back towards the advancing Visored.

"You're pathetic," he taunted. No one answered, now as serious and focused as ever, although they still seemed to be holding back. Obviously, they didn't want to hurt the kid.

//Ironic,\\ Shiro muttered silently.

//Why?\\ Ichigo asked. Shiro didn't respond.

"Pathetic hypocrites," he said, voice hissing just a little more than he'd intended. "If you're gonna come after me, then come after me!"

"Ichigo!" a new voice behind him took his attention away from his pursuers for just a moment. Rukia-taichou had come back down into the training grounds and looked on with worry. Which only served to tick Shiro off more.

He saw flashes of color, and barely avoided several hands grabbing for him. He wasn't about to let them catch him though.

"What do you want?" He heard Hirako's strained voice somewhere behind him.

"What," Shiro shot back, venom lacing his words, "you're gonna listen to me now?" He looked over his shoulder to see the blond Visored had stopped.

"Depends on what you have to say."

Shiro snorted at that, but paused despite his skepticism. Around him, all the movement stopped as they watched him warily, no doubt looking for their opening.

"Psh," he snorted. "Why would you listen to what I have to say when you hate hollows so much?" The blond man didn't respond. Shiro didn't care, continuing on anyway. "All of you hypocrites, looking down on hollows because they're hollows and hating the soul society for doing the exact same thing! We never really trusted you. Me, this Ichigo and the old Ichigo. Probably the one smart thing he ever did."

"We were the ones going out on a limb helping his sorry, bald butt and you're telling us he never cared?" Hyori shot, looking murderous.

"You never cared about him," Shiro's voice dropped, an insane smile touching what they could see of the boys lips. "You only wanted to strengthen your numbers. And now you," he turned an inclusive, narrowed eye on Rukia-taichou and then Urahara, "_all _of you, want to kill Ichigo off!"

"That's not true!" Rukia-taichou shot, seething. "How can you say that?"

"It's a hollow," Rose muttered as if the answer were obvious.

Shiro's glower darkened. "What do you think will happen when the idiot comes back?"

"Who?" Mashiro asked, putting a finger to her lips in confusion.

"I believe he means the old Ichigo," Urahara commented, looking somewhat grim.

"Of course I mean the old Ichigo! What do you think will happen when he comes back? You'll all get your stupid, reckless jerk back, but what'll happen to _this_ Ichigo?" He gestured to his body.

Rukia-taichou paused, looking confused. "The personalities will merge," she turned to look at Urahara. "Right?"

The green-clad man didn't answer at first, never taking his gaze off of Shiro.

"Why don't you tell them the truth, for once," Shiro asked, his grin widening, looking all the more creepy on the 8-year-old face.

"Theoretically, yes," the man shrugged. "The personalities should merge if he regains all of his memories."

"Theoretically," Shiro mocked. "Don't give them that crap. The idiot had 26 years of experience. This Ichigo has only two. Which personality will be stronger?"

Urahara didn't answer. Several eyes turned and stared at him, then turned to look back at the small, but challenging figure of Ichigo, his face now almost completely covered in the mask. "You won't answer? Fine, then let me tell you. I've been in here watching the memories come back little by little. And little by little, this Ichigo is disappearing."

//I am?\\ Little Ichigo yelped inside their head, fear clearly evident in his words. Shiro made a mental note to 'discuss' that with him later.

The royal court boy blinked several times, glancing back and forth between the different, various people throughout the room, confused. He was the only one with that expression. Some of the Visored looked startled. Most looked resigned. Rukia-taichou's face had gone deathly white, but Urahara didn't so much as flinch. Of course he wouldn't.

"And you knew," the hollow continued, hands tightening around Zangetsu. "You just wanted the old, easily manipulated Ichigo back. Doesn't matter who you'd kill in the process, does it?"

"And you," Urahara finally spoke, no hint of humor in his voice, "are no mere hollow, are you?"

That took Shiro by surprise and he narrowed his eyes at the green-clad shopkeeper. "What are you going on about?"

Urahara glanced at him out of the corner of his eye before turning his gaze back to Shiro. "I think you know what I mean, _Shiro-kun_."

//What's he talking about?\\ Little Ichigo demanded.

//I have no clue, brat,\\ Shiro said back harshly.

"He's too intelligent," a new, familiar voice spoke up. From the direction of the ladder, Neliel came walking confidently over. "Hirako-san is right," she said to Shiro. "Hollows consume everything they possibly can. It's the most basic instinct; devour, gain strength, survive."

Shiro scowled at her words, feeling slightly betrayed to hear a hollow, of all people, say those words. Despite that, he didn't deny anything she said. "

So why haven't you?" She continued, looking up at him curiously.

"What are you saying?" Rukia-taichou asked, regaining a bit of color in her cheeks.

"I'm saying," the green-haired woman smiled warmly up at Shiro, "that his inner hollow is just like me; an Arrancar."


	18. Threats and Promises

*sigh* Why does Fanfiction hate strange marks? I mean the double forward slash...I need it! Why have you taken it from me? *cries in despair*

Ah well.

What REALLY ticks me off is how they're taking away the combined"?" "!" ! I mean some of the others I can see, but that one crosses the line! Anyone know where I can write about this? !

So this chapter gave me and Daricio quite the difficult time, but I am rather pleased with the result. :D Let me know what you think.

* * *

At first no one spoke, and a pregnant silence fell over the group.

"Ichigo? An arrancar?" Rukia-taichou finally spoke, her words strained.

Urahara shrugged. "Not so much Ichigo himself as his inner hollow, but it makes sense, don't you think?"

/It does,\\ Ichigo said, his thoughts slightly awed. /Did you know, Shiro?\\

/Shut up, I'm thinking.\\ Shiro shot back.

Ichigo shrank back mentally. /Sorry,\\ he thought, slightly hurt.

Shiro huffed and didn't respond, contemplating silently for several seconds. Ichigo could literally feel him thinking. After a few minutes, he looked up at Urahara and Ichigo began to feel a great deal of realization and anger from his other half. "It doesn't matter," he growled aloud.

"Of course it matters!" Rukia-taichou said angrily.

"It has _nothing _to do with what I was saying to you! My _point_ was that you're all still so stuck in the past that you'll kill off this Ichigo to get the person from your memories back! You're deliberately distracting us!" he shot that last comment at Urahara.

Urahara's mouth twitched a little. Was that a smile? Rukia-taichou turned her attention to the shopkeeper for a moment before returning her gaze to Ichigo. She looked both aghast and more angry than Ichigo had ever seen her before as she glared up at the little-boy-turned-hollow.

"Then what do you suggest?" Urahara asked, still serious despite the touch of his normal, carefree tone that had creeped back into his voice.

Shiro shot a glare at the man, although it was hardly visible through the almost-complete mask. "What do you think, moron? Why don't you quit trying so hard to bring the idiot back! Every time you jerks flood his head with memories that aren't really his, you kill him just a little bit more!"

Another slight smile from Urahara gave Shiro pause. "So you want us to put him back in the Rukongai? Forget about ever seeing him again? When he's already made his own connections with the Soul Society?"

"Why not?" Shiro cut the air with his hand, "Sounds good to me! We were doing just fine in Rukongai before you idiots showed up, and we'll do just fine now. Just leave us alone!" A touch of insanity entered his tone, "Unless you'd rather I take us to Hueco Mundo where you _can't_ reach us."

/Wait, what?\\ Ichigo asked, taken aback. His outburst coincided with several others from around the group.

The Shopkeeper glanced up and put a hand on his hat as he took a step forward, then another, slowly making his way towards the child. "Shiro-san," he said, "it seems you want to hurt Ichigo as much as you claim we do."

Ichigo didn't think Shiro's anger could get any worse. He was wrong. Shiro's voice lowered to a dangerous hiss. "You-" he started, but Urahara cut him off, seemingly unaware of the increasingly hostile situation.

"How much easier would it be for the Unmaker to find you in the Rukongai?" he asked, still advancing. "Far more easily than the Soul Society. Almost as easily as it would be here on Earth, if he can travel through time and dimensions as Akio-san suggests might be possible."

Shiro still said nothing, but Ichigo knew he was getting angrier. Mentally, he backed as far away from the hollow as he could to try and avoid the seething mass of anger that had begun to roll off of his other half.

"So that's it?" Shrio ground out, the multiple voice making the noise all the more menacing. "Because of the circumstances, we're just a sacrifice? Or more specifically, him?"

"Why do you care?" Hirako asked, his voice disbelieving but thoughtful. "You're not protecting him out of the goodness of your heart." Shiro shot him a look of pure hatred, and more than one person tightened their grips on their weapons, ready to defend. "Arrancar or not, you're still a hollow," Hirako continued warily, "and no matter how much reasoning you've regained, hollows don't work like that. So why? What's in it for you?"

The two glared at each other for what seemed like an eternity before Shiro finally spoke, although he never broke eye contact. "You all convinced him I was evil," he said finally. "So he did what you suggested and locked me away." He began to walk forward, stepping onto the air, his white-knuckle grip on Zangetsu suddenly obvious as the hollow transformation continued past the now completed mask and Ichigo's nails suddenly began to grow longer.

"Do you have any idea what it's like? Can you possibly imagine being trapped inside your own mind? Unable to do anything? To see anything? To _feel_ anything?" His eyes narrowed to slits, the golden pupils shining eerily through the mask for just a moment.

"I will _not_ be locked away again!" His eyes widened again and he sprang forward, bringing Zangetsu around to crash down on the Visored's head. Hirako brought his sword up, but the motion was wasted as another sword blocked the boy's.

Shiro's eyes widened, then narrowed when he realized who had stopped his blade.

"Don't pretend like you're protecting me, Kisuke," Hirako said, although the tone in his voice sounded friendly.

Urahara ignored him. "Before you decide to attack everyone, I have a suggestion."

"I'm sick of your suggestions, you manipulating-"

"Prove it," Urahara interrupted.

"What?" Shiro paused for a moment.

"Prove that you and Ichigo are strong enough to protect yourselves from the Unmaker, and we'll let you go back to the Rukongai."

"What?" Several people burst in outrage.

"What do you mean by that, Urahara?" Rukia-taichou spoke louder than anyone else, looking downright furious. "How dare you-"

"It's obviously what they want," Urahara said calmly, never lowering his sword which still stopped Zangetsu's progress as Shiro stood in thin air. "Ichigo-kun no longer wishes to remember his past, and Shiro-san does not want Kurosaki-san to return either. He hasn't technically joined the Soul Society, so returning to the Rukongai shouldn't be a problem.

"However," he glanced up at the boy even though he continued to address Rukia-taichou, "he has to prove he's strong enough first. Until Akio-san is satisfied, he will remain in the Seireitei and continue to regain memories of his previous life."

"You son of a-" Shiro started again, but again, Urahara cut him off.

"Shiro-san," he said, his voice soft but stern, leaving no room for argument. "Despite what you think, we do not want to harm either of Ichigo-kun's personalities; his old one, or this new one. If Ichigo-kun is dying as you say he is, then I will put all of my effort into devising a way to stop this. You have my word."

Behind him, Hirako's eyes widened as he glanced between the shopkeeper and Shiro in surprise.

Shiro regarded him for several moments, cogs turning in his mind. Ichigo found himself too lost in his own thoughts to try and figure out or listen in on his other half's thoughts. This all seemed like so much for him to take. His brain felt like it would explode any second.

"Fine," Shiro finally said, drawing Ichigo out of his thoughts. "But if you fail, and the other Ichigo tries to take over again, I won't show mercy. I will consume him like the hollow you all thought I was, and then I will come after you."

"Very well," Urahara said, waving his hand in a nonchalant manner. "May we speak to Ichigo now?"

The hollow stood up and jumped back, landing on the ground gracefully. "Che," he muttered, and then the mask burst, falling to the ground along with the hard skin covering anything else that had been transformed by Shiro's extended use of Ichigo's body.

That suddenly, Ichigo found himself back in control, staring dully ahead as he tried to wrap his mind around everything that had just happened. For several seconds, everyone just stared at him. Then, he felt two hands on his shoulders. Turning around, he saw a sad-faced Rukia-taichou kneel down, bowing her head so that it touched his.

"Ichigo," she said softly. "I'm so sorry." When she looked up, her eyes had hardened with a resolve he hadn't seen since Hueco Mundo. Vaguely he realized that memory wasn't his, but at the moment he found himself a little too preoccupied to do anything about it. "We'll do everything we can to make sure you don't disappear. I promise."

He allowed himself to relax into her and brought his arms up around her, fingers clutching at the captains robe she wore.

"Okay."

xXx

"This is as good as it's going to get! ?" Human voice's tone rose several notches.

"It is to be expected," the fourth voice said calmly.

"_How_ is this to be expected! ?" Apparently, whatever had affected their appearance had finally worn off, or 'stabilized', as the fourth voice had said.

Hollow snorted, but it was Soul that spoke up.

"It's all of us combined." They stared at themselves in the mirror of a shop vendor.

Human voice sighed. "This sucks. Our skin is so light it's practically see through, the whites of our eyes will probably stay gray indefinitely and that is the ugliest hair color I've ever seen on anyone."

"At least it's not green," Soul voice pointed out.

"Yeah," Hollow voice sneered. "I thought you didn't care about appearances."

Human voice twisted their face into another scowl.

"We do look funny," Soul voice commented, pulling at a strand of the muddy, light brownish-red color. "Although I don't think our hair is that ugly. And hey, at least we have brown eyes, and the gray isn't too dark."

"Why do we care?" Hollow voice snapped. "Weren't we in the middle of training?"

The other voices didn't answer.

"I feel another one," Soul voice finally broke the silence.

"The Shinigami are going to get suspicious if they all keep disappearing," Human voice muttered.

"Who cares?" Hollow growled again.

Human voice's next words sounded drier than a Hueco Mundo desert. "Isn't hunting them down like cannibalism for you?"

An insane smile crossed their face. "It would be, if we ate them."

"EW!" Soul voice exclaimed, sounding thoroughly disgusted.

"We really need a zanpaktou," Human continued, choosing to pass that particular train of thought by.

The Soul's voice interrupted, now confused. "But we have one..."

"One that we can use, brat," Hollow shot.

No one responded for several moments as Soul's surprise widened their eyes. "Hey, old man," he whispered, knowing there was no real reason to do so. "Is it just me, or did those two just agree?"

Two voices in unison shouted back: "Shut up!"

xXx

Rukia hadn't felt this miserable since the Repentance Tower imprisonment. Sighing, she looked out the window of Urahara's shop and stared up at the clouds as they passed lazily by. Had she really been so blind? So caught up in getting the old Ichigo back that she'd completely overlooked his new personality? His new being? And didn't he have just as much (or more) right to exist as the old Ichigo did?

The thought that bringing the old Ichigo back would kill the new one had never even crossed her mind, but was that because she'd been too biased to even try and see it?

Now Ichigo had almost died, again, and it was all her fault. Because she'd been too blind. Ironic that it was his inner hollow—arrancar, she reminded herself—that had had to talk sense into her. Well, yell it, really. And scream. And threaten. But the fact was, he'd been the one to to get her to see reason. Why was she so thick? Was she really so obsessed with Ichigo? With bringing him back? Why?

She knew, really. He'd gone against the world to save her life, and she couldn't even manage to save him from a stupid fire. She'd seen it as her chance to repay the debt she owed him...the debt she knew inside her heart that she could never truly repay. Over the years, it had grown from an inkling to full-out knowledge that she really owed him her life. Or more.

"Rukia-san," a soft voice from the door interrupted her thoughts. She looked up to see Ururu standing apologetically in the doorway. "Akio-san says they're ready to leave."

"Of course," Rukia replied, steeling her face. She was a Kuchiki after all. She didn't even sigh as she stood, trying to bring about an air of stoicism.

All the while, she could only think, /This time, I'll protect you, Ichigo, whether it's really you or not.\\

xXx

It felt good to have so many sad to see him go, but it felt horrible at the same time. Ichigo couldn't quite wrap his mind around both extremes of the feeling at the same time. It made his head hurt.

"Here's a bento for you," Yuzu said, obviously trying to hold back tears, and not succeeding very well. "I don't know if you can eat it in the Soul Society, but I wanted to make something for you anyway."

Ichigo looked down at the small, tied handkerchief wrapped around a fairly large, square box and took it gingerly. Then he looked back up at the woman who was forcing a smile for him.

"Thank you, nee-chan," he said with as much sincerity as he could muster. Apparently it paid off, because the woman sniffed and nodded, then bent down and gave him a hug. "You'll always have a home with us," she said softly.

Karin was right behind her, an annoyed expression crossing her features. "Ichigo," she said firmly, "If you die again, I won't forgive you." Ichigo gulped as she turned and walked away. Just as Yuzu opened her mouth about to reprimand her sister, Karin paused, and didn't look over her shoulder. "Stay safe."

Then, of course, he had to dodge the human bullet. That goodbye didn't last long, and ended in a fair amount of pain for the older Kurosaki.

After that, Neliel came over and picked him up, squeezing him into her chest so hard he saw stars. "If you have any Arrancar questions, like how to release a Resurreccion or anything at all, have Urahara-san get in touch with me. I'll do my best to answer them all!"

"Uh, thanks," Ichigo gasped, holding his chest as he sucked in precious air. Urahara had been the one to suggest that he try and train to a point where he could release some sort of Resurreccion form. Of course, he had no idea how _that_ was supposed to happen. Zangetsu was a Shinigami zanpaktou, not an Arrancar zanpaktou.

Shiro hadn't said much of anything on the matter. Actually, he hadn't really said anything at all.

"Come, Ichigo," Rukia-taichou put a hand on his shoulder. He nodded and followed, continuing to force a smile until the others were out of sight and the door to the Soul Society closed. After that, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The dark-haired captain noticed, apparently. "Are you alright, Ichigo?" she asked.

Ichigo nodded, but didn't answer or look up at her, instead staying quietly by her side.

"Ichigo," she said reproachfully, then her voice softened. "Did they make you uncomfortable?"

When he answered, it was a slow nod. "Is that okay?" he asked, his voice sounding pitifully weak even to him.

This time it took her several moments to answer. "It's natural for you to not like someone if they remind you of something painful, but if you let feelings like that cloud your judgment for people you know are good and who care for you, you will end up hurting them, and robbing yourself of a valuable ally.

"That's one thing I always admired Ichigo for," she said softly. Her tone of voice caused Ichigo to look up at her. It didn't sound like she was referring to him. Her eyes had gotten dim, and she looked up as if remembering something from the distant past. "No matter how much he denied it, he always cared for people. Whether they were his friends or not, he saw them as potential friends. He always claimed not to be a nice person, but I'll bet he even thought that way about the street thugs that used to gang up on him before I met him.

"If he cared for someone, he protected them. If he fought someone, he cared for them. If he saw someone protecting someone else, he respected them. And he valued life deeply..."

Ichigo looked down again, frowning. "You want him back, don't you?"

Rukia-taichou let out an exasperated sigh. "Yes," she said. Ichigo felt his heart sink. Yet another person he couldn't trust because they cared for the person he used to be over- "But not if it means sacrificing another. I don't want that, and he wouldn't want that."

The carrot-top blinked, feeling surprised. "So...you won't let me die? Even if it means seeing him again?"

Rukia-taichou's eyes hardened and she knelt down, taking Ichigo by the shoulders and looking him in the face like she had when he first met her.

"Listen to me," she said, her voice dangerous and firm. "I will give my life to protect you, and not because you used to be Kurosaki Ichigo. I will protect you because you are Kuchiki Ichigo, my little brother." A sad smile touched her lips. "And older siblings always protect the younger ones."

And for just a moment, Ichigo wasn't anyone but an 8-year-old child. So he did what a child would do, rushing forward and giving his older sister a large hug.

"Thank you, Nee-san," he said softly.

Behind him, he heard Akio clear his throat. "We need to keep moving," the court guard said callously. "It's always the most dangerous traveling between worlds."

Rukia-taichou stood and nodded at him, then smiled down at Ichigo, who took her hand and followed.


End file.
